Artemio Tadena-This Craft, As With A Woman Loved: Selected Poems has just been released by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, Manila.
Edited by eminent poet and critic, Gémino H. Abad, and Dumaguete poet Myrna Peña-Reyes, the book is a collection of the late Artemio Tadena’s poems, with Critical and Biographical essays as well as Notes on the poems by the editors.
Although mainly associated with Foundation University, his alma mater (A.B. and Law degrees) where he taught and worked in several capacities, Tadena was also part of the Silliman University writing scene where he took English classes as a part-time undergraduate and graduate student.
The late Tadena, a much awarded Dumaguete poet, published over a period of just seven years in the late 1960s to early 1970s five poetry collections, winners of major literary awards such as the Palanca Memorial Award for Poetry, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Award for Poetry.
In 1977, his untimely death at 38 cut short the gifted poet’s career that was a great loss to Philippine literature in English.
With the passage of time and his books going out of print, Tadena was soon “forgotten,” (even in his hometown) and an “unknown” to the younger audience of Philippine literature.
The book sprung from the editors’ appreciation of his poems, and their desire to help reclaim his place in our literary consciousness; to remind his older readers of his work, and, especially, to introduce his exemplary poems to the younger generation.
His high esteem brings pride to Dumagueteños, the “Bisdak nation,” and the country as a whole.
The book will be launched in July.
