Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Victor Dennis T Nierva

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Name
  
Victor T.


Victor Dennis T. Nierva


Education
  
Ateneo de Naga University

Victor Dennis T. Nierva (born 24 February 1980, Naga City, Bikol Philippines; Father: Estelito Aguila Nierva, a railway official; Mother: Grace Pacay Tino, a teacher) is a poet, teacher, journalist, theatre actor, translator, graphic and book designer, and a cultural advocate from the Bikol region of the Philippines. He is one of the loudest voices in the contemporary Bikol literary scene.

Contents

Early years

Born in Naga City, Nierva grew up and spent his early education in the central school of Lupi, a rural railroad town in the province of Camarines Sur. This lowly, riverine and hilly town figures out in many of Nierva's poetry; and in many literary gatherings, he would often admit that the town is one of his richest sources of poetic inspiration.

Education

Nierva finished basic education in 1992 and eventually went to study in Naga City, the academic center of the region, where he entered Ateneo de Naga University (AdNU) for his high school and college. In 2000, he earned his degree in Development Communication, after which he became a faculty member of AdNU's Department of Media Studies. At present, he works as a freelance writer, translator, and graphic and industrial designer. He is currently finishing his MA Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Writings and Awards

In 2007, his first book, "Antisipasyon asin iba pang Rawitdawit sa Bikol asin Ingles (Anticipation and other Poems in Bikol and English)", was published in Naga City. The book contains the poems that won for him the Premio Tomas Arejola para sa Literaturang Bikol in the same year. In 2008, the book won the prestigious Philippine National Book Award for Poetry from the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics Circle. In 2009, the book became a finalist in the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. He maintains a column entitled "Mayon Limited" in the online Bikol news hub, Vox Bikol.

The brilliance of his poetry is captured in the citation read by Danton Remoto during the conferment of the National Book Award in 2007: "In less enlightened times, poetry was thought to have been written only in the metropolis, seen as the center of culture and taste. In the last ten years, regional publishing has begun to produce excellent books of literature. One of them is Antisipasyon asin iba pang Rawitdawit sa Bikol asin Ingles, written by Victor Dennis T. Nierva and published by Goldprint, Naga City.

Images of the poet's Bicol Region are luxuriant in this book. They are memories, presences, and forebodings. But always, the poet's pen is restrained, the images and lines chiseled. This is a young poet's book, but some of the poems in this collection—whether in their original Bikol or translated into English—are already some of the best poems of his generation."

For the lapidary quality of his poetry, the National Book Award for Poetry is given to Antisipasyon asin iba pang rawitdawit sa Bikol asin Ingles."

His second book, "Doros asin mga Anghel (Translations in Bikol of John Donne's Holy Sonnets and Selected Works)" was released by the Ateneo de Naga University Press in January 2012.

In 2013, "Doros asin mga Anghel" won the National Book Award for Best Translated Book.

References

Victor Dennis T. Nierva Wikipedia