Cordero wins Rolando Tinio Prize for Translations

NAGA CITY --- Bikol writer Kristian Sendon Cordero has won the first Rolando Tinio Prize for Translation given by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts last July 16, 2017 in Intramuros, Manila. Aside from Cordero, the other winners include Felino S. Garcia Jr. and Settie-Zhymah S. Padate. Cordero won for his entry entitled Kuwatro Kantos: Kumukulo ang Bukal sa Loob, an anthology of Bikol poems by Luis Cabalquinto, Raffi Banzuela, Gode Calleja and the late Jun Belgica which Cordero is translating into Filipino. Cordero is said to have started the project during his residency program in the University of Iowa last year where he participated in the International Writing Program sponsored by the US State Department. Cordero has also translated the works of Rainer Maria Rilke, Oscar Wilde, Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges into Filipino and Bikol. His Borges translation which was funded by the Program Sur in Argentina won for him the Gintong Aklat Award for Best Book in Philippine Literature in 2016. Judging the competition are National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, poet Ruth Elynia Mabanglo, poet/translator Michael Coroza, literature professor Aurora Batnag, novelist Efren Reyes-Abueg, and scholar Galileo Zafra. The translator’s prize comes with a P250, 000.00 grant that will help Cordero with his project. The prize is named after the late National Artist for Literature Rolando Tinio who was also an exemplary translator of foreign literary works including the plays of William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov into Filipino. Cordero has recently returned to Naga City after his artist-in-residency program in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is expected to finish this translation project by the end of the year.