Celebrating Maningning Miclat in art awards, book launch, silent auction on September 19

Selected paintings by Maningning Miclat will be on exhibit, most of which will be up for silent auction

AT A GLANCE

• The Maningning Miclat Art Foundation is hosting an event on September 19 to honor the late artist Maningning Miclat, featuring the awarding of winners from the 2026 art competition, a book launch, and an exhibit sale.
• The competition will award cash prizes and copies of Miclat's books to the top three artists, while selected paintings by Maningning will be available for silent auction.
• Alma Cruz Miclat's new book, 'Of Grief and Redemption,' will be launched, reflecting her personal journey through grief and loss, with insights from various contributors highlighting the themes of love and redemption.

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The following is a press release from Maningning Miclat Art Foundation, Incorporated.

On the 26th anniversary of the death of trilingual poet, visual artist, teacher and translator Maningning Miclat, the Art Foundation named in her honor presents NINGNING SA DILIM.

The event features the awarding of winners of the 2026 Maningning Art Competition, the soft launch of Alma Cruz Miclat’s book Of Grief and Redemption (UP Press), an exhibit and sale of shortlisted competition entries, and a silent auction of paintings by Maningning from the Miclat family collection.

This will be held at the Art Circle Gallery in Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman on Saturday, September 19 at 4 pm.

From the shortlist of artists whose artworks will be on exhibit sale – Princess Ann Alegre, Jason Cedric Andres, Mica Collado, Marc Danpol Esurena, Ernest Uriel Malimban, Jealyn Samonte, Shari Eunice San Pablo, Maria Angelica Tejada, Maria Felicity Tejada, Julian Gabriel Cuison Trinidad and Jayrous Ehmard Vicent — will be chosen the Top 3.

The grand winner in the art competition will be awarded P28,000 cash prize and a Julie Lluch sculpture trophy.

The grand winner and the 2nd and 3rd prizes will receive copies of the Miclat books, including Maningning’s Voice from the Underworld, Fairground: A Literary Feast (Edited by Gémino H. Abad & Alma Cruz Miclat), Mario I. Miclat’s Memorial Set of his last three books – Kailan Diwata at 70+ na Tula, Hundred Flowers, Hundred Philosophies, and 21 West 4th Street, Ningning at Liwanag: Antolohiya ng 10 Nagwagi sa Gawad Maningning Miclat sa Tula [2003-2021], and coffee table book edition of Mario I. Miclat’s Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions with an Introduction by National Artist Virgilio S. Almario. 

Selected paintings by Maningning Miclat will be on exhibit, most of which will be up for silent auction. 

Meanwhile, the book, Of Grief and Redemption, will have a soft launching with the publisher UP Press getting pre-orders at launch price with delivery to be announced at a later date. 

On Of Grief and Redemption, the author Alma Cruz Miclat’s rich story-telling in the last five years since the death of her beloved husband, poet, writer and academic Mario Ignacio Miclat, and her entry into the first half of the seventh decade of her life encapsulated in each of the 58 essays in the book, is a memoir on grief and loss, a journal on her struggle toward redemption.

Memories not only of those five years which she shared through different publications, but also of the half a century of living with the love of her life echo with grief and pain, especially since their multi-talented firstborn took her own life 26 years ago.

Multi-awarded publisher Karina Bolasco writes in the book’s Foreword: “The entire book is a purposive intimate meditation on love and loss, love as great as sunlight and loss as deep as six feet under. But there are roots that take root and bloom. It is about how on every ordinary day, Alma finds something, someone, somewhere with extraordinary stories to tell and share with others.  She takes leaps of faith and whether or not she seeks it, there is somehow redemption, not only for her and her family and community but for a nation confronting daily its demons. For with the Miclats, and just by the manner of their past and present, we are certain there is nothing that is merely personal. Even grief and redemption.”

Thelma Sioson San Juan, Alma’s editor at TheDiarist.ph where the bulk of the essays came from, shares: “While others write to simply write, Alma Cruz Miclat writes to tell her own life story. In doing so, she bares her pain and tragedy, her happiness and triumph. Her own. Her honesty and bravery distinguish her writings. Her stories go beyond a display of craftsmanship; they bear witness to her own world and beyond it. She knows when to go deep into herself to share her longing for loved ones, and when to venture out to an outside world filled with injustice and untruths. She’s turned her memories—of sadness and joy—into a comfort zone, where even the reader is welcomed. Such is the generosity of this writer.”

For inquiries on the particulars of the event, email maningningfoundation@gmail.com. – Rappler.com