BOHOLANO poet Fred Jordan Carnice was named “Poet of the Year” in the annual Nick Joaquin Literary Awards on May 4, 2023 at the Winford Resort & Casino in Santa Cruz, Manila, organized by the prestigious Philippines Graphic magazine.
“Jordie,” as he is fondly called by family & friends, is a member of the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Council (BACH) and is a poet and visual artist. In 2020, he was Vice Chair of the Literary Arts Committee and led the implementation of creative writing projects like the “Kinalitkalit Flash Fiction Writing Competition” and the “Tagik Balak Writing Competition.”
Carnice said his prize-winning work “Four Poems for the Futur” appeared in the July 2022 issue. He said “it would not have taken its true form if not for the inspiration of my home-province Bohol, and the support of my family and loved ones.” His literary mentor, Ian Rosales Casocot of Negros Oriental, also won “Best Fiction” for his short story, “Ceferina in Apartment 2G.”
Of his journey in writing poetry, he says he is proud to have “started from the bottom and taking no shortcuts” and arrived at this high point. He recalled having stopped writing for almost five years, but picked up his pen again and wrote about things close to his heart from his home-island Bohol. While he got countless rejections for the past 30 years and won no major literary awards, he persisted in his art and learned “that writing is an infinite endurance test…You write because you persevere for your truth.”
This year’s judges were Philippines Graphic Literary Editor Marra Lanot, Jose Dalisay, and Susan Lara. Among the finalists of the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards were well-known writers like Marne L. Kilates, Grace Monte de Ramos, Rowena Torrevillas, Joel M. Toledo, Lourd de Veyra, Menchu Sarmiento, Nerissa Guevara, and Totel de Jesus.
Carnice is a graduate of Silliman University in Dumaguete, where he took his A.B. English (Creative Writing). He has published his poetry and prose in the Philippines and many parts of the world. He is among the authors in the anthology “The Bohol We Love” (2017). He currently works with the Philippine Statistics Agency (PSA) in Tagbilaran City. (MAEP)
