Six Uses of Fictional Symbols

by Edith L. Tiempo

This is the latest work of National Artist for Literature Edith L. Tiempo, poet, fictionist, scholar, critic, cofounder (with her husband, the late Edilberto Tiempo) of the pioneering Silliman Writers Workshop, mentor to several generations of Filipino writers.

For decades, young writers have been asking themselves, before offering a new work to the public: "will it pass muster in Silliman?" This book examines the way symbols operate in fiction with the author's usual perception, sensitivity, and lucidity. Reading it, one hears the author's voice, the sharpness of her observations made more striking by the gentle reasonableness of her tone.

Here is a small treasure for the writers, literary scholars, and critics who missed the opportunity of actually sitting in "Mom Edith's" classroom or workshop.

63 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Edith L. Tiempo, poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic is one of the finest Filipino Writers in English whose works are characterized by a remarkable fusion of style and substance, of craftsmanship and insight. Her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized pieces, "Lament for the Littlest Fellow" and "Bonsai." As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound. Her language has been marked as "descriptive but unburdened by scrupulous detailing." She is an influential tradition in Philippine literature in English.

Together with her late husband, writer and critic Edilberto K. Tiempo, they founded (in 1962) and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the Philippines' best writers.

She was conferred the National Artist Award for Literature in 1999.

(from wikipedia.org.)