The National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Manila Critics Circle (MCC) announced the winners of the 28th National Book Awards during the awards ceremonies held at the Ayala Museum in Makati City. Anvil Publishing Inc. bagged this year’s Publisher of the Year Award for having published the most number of winning books this year.

The list of winners follows:

Arts & Alfonso T. Ongpin Prize for Best Book on Art: The Shared Voice: Chanted and Spoken Narratives from the Philippines, Grace Nono (Anvil Publishing and Fundacion Santiago);

Autobiography/Biography: Afro-Asia in Upheaval: A Memoir of Front-line Reporting, Amando Doronila (Anvil Publishing);

General Nonfiction: Ah, Wilderness! A Journey Through Sacred Time, Simeon Dumdum Jr. (Ateneo de Manila University Press);

Leisure: Café by the Ruins: Memories and Recipes, Lia Llamado, Adelaida Lim and Feliz Perez (Anvil Publishing);

Literary Criticism/Literary History: Our Scene So Fair: Filipino Poetry in English, 1905 to 1955, Gémino H. Abad (University of the Philippines Press);

Poetry: The Gods We Worship Live Next Door, Bino A. Realuyo (Anvil Publishing);

Professions: Sine Gabay: A Film Study Guide, Nick Deocampo and the Center for New Cinema (Anvil Publishing);

Sciences: Diabetes is BitterSweet: A Guide to Understanding Diabetes, edited by Estrellita Fernando-Lopez, and associate editors Nerissa Cinco Calimon and Florence Amorado-Santos (SweetStar Publication);
Social Sciences: Competing Views and Strategies on Agrarian Reform, Volume I: International Perspective and Volume II: Philippine Perspective, Saturnino Borras Jr. (Ateneo de Manila University Press).

Design: The Philippines Through European Lenses: Late 19th Century Photographs from the Meekamp Van Embden Collection, designed by Karl Fredrick Castro (Ateneo de Manila University Press) .

This year’s trophy was designed by young sculptor and TOYM awardee Michael Cacnio.

The organizations which participated in the pre-screening process were: Poets, Essayists, Novelists (PEN), the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center (BNSCWC), LIKHAAN Institute of Creative Writing, Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC), Cultural Center of the Philippines, Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), Ateneo School of Government (ASG), the UP College of Education, Reading Department, UP National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development (NISMED), Philippine Social Science Council Inc. (PSSC), Center for Culinary Arts (CCA ), Manila and UST College of Tourism and Hospitality Management.

Besides members of the Manila Critics Circle, the NBDB assigned NBDB-appointed judges for each category namely: Mr. Joselito Zulueta, National Secretary of the Poets, Essayists and Novelists (PEN) for Autobiography; fictionist and UP creative writing professor Charlson Ong for fiction; BNSCWC Director Dr. Dinah Roma-Sianturi for literary criticism, poet and professor J Neil Garcia for general nonfiction; graphic designer and author Carlo Vergara for graphic literature, Italy’s; Premio Feronia awardee Gemino Abad for poetry; and Dr. Priscelina Legasto of the UP Department of English and Comparative Literature as the permanent judge for the literary division. For the non-literary division, the NBDB-appointed judges were:
UP art professor and curator Eileen Legasto for art; Dr. Merle Tan of UP NISMED for science, Dean Alex Brilliantes of NCPAG for professions; Dr. Grace Gorospe-Jamon of the PSSC for social sciences; CCP chair and advertising executive Emily Abrera for leisure; John Marin Flores for design; and Dean Zosimo Lee of the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy as the permanent judge for the non-literary division.