manila times life and style section

last friday's column:

THE SCRIBE VIBE
By Libay Linsangan Cantor
The toughest writing challenge yet

Last week, I received the toughest writing challenge I ever encountered in my 10-year professional writing career: what to write for a tombstone message.

This may sound funny but it’s actually not. My girlfriend’s mother died last week and I helped with the preparations during the wake, at the funeral and cleaning up after everything. Since I am the writer of the family, my girlfriend asked me to formulate the words needed for two things: first, for the message that accompanied the names of the family members written on strips of ribbon tape pinned on the coffin’s viewing window cover; second, the words on the actual tombstone. The first was actually easier (she approved “with all our love…”) but I had to sweat out the second.

read the rest here.


and an article feature on the women writers of writers bloc:

Drama queens

The women playwrights of Writers Bloc woo words and win wisdom

By Libay Linsangan Cantor, Contributor

Let’s face it: there’s no money in theater. But someone has to do drama. Dramaturgy, that is.

And who could better to do dramaturgy than women. Whether 40-minuter one-act plays or hour-plus-long full-length plays, local women playwrights have devoted time, talent and tough love to produce quality work that say something important about society, about being a woman, and about being Filipino.

read the rest here.


some bts of that interview session. photos by vivian limpin.