An Open Letter for UP Writers' Night 2001
    The traditional Writers' Night, sponsored by Likhaan: the U.P. Creative Writing Center, will be hosted this year by UP President Francisco Nemenzo, and will be held at the Executive House, U.P. Diliman on the 13th of December, from 6 p.m. onwards. It will be in honor of the U.P. writers who have won literary awards and published books in the last two years, and a kind of thank you to the generous friends and patrons of the CWC.
    We are writing individual letters of invitation to the individuals concerned, but if you are a U.P. writer (faculty member or student) who won such an award or published a book, and you don't receive an invitation within the next week or so, please assume that it's the fault of your friendly neighborhood post office and JUST COME!
    As usual, the affair is also a reunion for writing fellows of the U.P. National Writers' Workshops and a Christmas Party for all writers. But we don't have time to send out invitations to all writers this year, so please take this -- and press releases that will come out in the major dailies -- as a personal invitation.
    This year, we don't expect to raise any funds for the CWC, just to have fun. Linda Panlilio is providing a pianist, and everyone who feels like it can just go up to the piano and belt it out. That will be the program for the evening. Gugu de Jesus and Ed Cabagnot will be emcees, of course. No Writers' Night will be complete without them.
    The CWC will run a small second-hand books booth, and Krip Yuson tells me UMPIL will have a small booth too (although what it will be selling is still a secret). Since we have no way of knowing how many people will actually show up -- we all know that no Pinoy would be caught dead R.S.V.P.-ing -- we may run out of refreshments, so come early. If you want to bring a contribution -- a platter of pansit or pasta or pizza or sandwiches or a bag of junk food, etc.-- we'd be grateful. Erwin Castillo is as usual picking up the tab for the beer.
    Please pass on.