Held at Sunshine Place on Jupiter Street in Makati City, a haven for senior citizens, was the book launch of their Bridges of Memory. I use the possessive pronoun their as the book is a compendium of the output generated by a creative writing course conducted by Prof. Oscar Peñaranda with regulars of the Sunshine Place. While Prof. Peñaranda resides in San Francisco, he met with the budding writers online over eight illuminating lessons. Consisting of poems, essays, memoirs, and short stories, the book is the second anthology ever published out of this creative writing course.

To bring added gravitas to the event, multi-awarded author Butch Dalisay was the guest speaker, who talked about his own writing course at the University of the Philippines. He expressed how he found it so encouraging to see the enthusiasm of those who contributed to the book. Here’s a heartfelt congratulations to the likes of Dada Trillo, Kit Reventar, Len Fernandez, Vicky Lopez, Arlene Gonzales, Mario Torrento, Jr., and Rudy Fernandez for now being published writers! What Lizanne Uychaco and Neny Regino have created at Sunshine Place is such a wonderful initiative.