Bangsamoro, Davao workshops signal growing momentum for Mindanao writing scene
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/19 May 2026)— With the inaugural Bangsamoro Writers Workshop announcing its first batch of fellows and the 2026 Davao Writers Workshop set to convene later this month, literary groups across Mindanao are positioning regional writing as a dynamic and expanding space, no longer peripheral to Philippine literature.
The twelve fellows selected for the first Bangsamoro Writers Workshop were officially announced this week ahead of the workshop’s June 4 to 7 run in Cotabato City. Organized by the Bangsamoro Literary Review, the gathering describes itself as “the first initiative of its kind devoted to creative writing in the Bangsamoro and Mindanao.”
“Bangsamoro writing is no longer at the margins of Philippine literature,” organizers of the first Bangsamoro Writers Workshop said in a Facebook post on Tuesday, May 12.
Mindanao. Organizers from both workshops recently announced new developments ahead of their 2026
runs, signaling what they describe as a growing and increasingly diverse regional literary scene. Photos
from the official Facebook pages of Bangsamoro Writers Workshop and Davao Writers Guild
“It is expanding its own language, aesthetics, and literary imagination. The threshold of Bangsamoro writing and its future is vast, daring, and profoundly alive,” the post said.
Chosen from submissions across the Bangsamoro homeland and diaspora, the fellows were selected in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Selected nonfiction fellows are Nawirah Abdullah, Moirah Athena Abpi, Ralph Jade Tampal, Hasmeyya Lao Tiboron, and Bryan Alexander Open. Fiction fellows are Jasser Magomnang Esmael, Al Jhamier Mosib, Guian Dayang, and Razul Ariz, while poetry fellows are Jamil Mabandis, Norsalim Haron, and Sandrah Maas Saudagal.
According to organizers, the selected works grapple with themes of “memory, displacement, faith, violence, inheritance, and the evolving realities of Moro life.”
Serving as panelists and mentors are writers Kristine Ong Muslim, Sigrid Marianne Gayangos, Mubarak Tahir, Diandra Ditma Macarambon, and filmmaker-writer Teng Mangansakan, who also serves as workshop director.
“As the first initiative of its kind devoted to creative writing in the Bangsamoro and Mindanao, the Workshop stands as a monumental step toward building a sustained literary tradition rooted in the complexity, plurality, and brilliance of Bangsamoro experience,” Mangansakan said.
Elsewhere in Mindanao, the Davao Writers Guild earlier announced the 12 fellows selected for the 2026 Davao Writers Workshop, chosen from a pool of 61 applications across poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and playwriting.
According to the Davao Writers Guild, the screening committee selected fellows based on “literary merit and potential for growth,” while also considering geographical and gender representation. Organizers added that the chosen manuscripts span multiple languages used across Mindanao, including Binisaya, Maguindanaon, Mandaya, Filipino, and English.
The workshop will run from May 27 to 31 in Aundanao, Island Garden City of Samal. This year’s panelists and mentors include writers Jhoanna Lynn Cruz, Errol Merquita, Melona Grace Mascariñas, and Dominique Cimafranca, alongside Blaan-Ibaloy writer Elizabeth Joy Serrano-Quijano as deputy and Jade Mark Capiñanes as workshop director.
The Davao workshop also introduces a mentoring component to its structure, with panelists continuing to work with fellows online after the residential workshop “with the goal of bringing each manuscript to publishable quality.”
Together, the two workshops point to a literary landscape increasingly shaped by voices outside Metro Manila — rooted in local languages, histories, and communities, while pushing toward new forms and futures for Philippine literature.
Across both initiatives, Mindanao writing emerges as a constellation of overlapping geographies, languages, and imaginations — restless, multilingual, and ever-expanding. (Bea Gatmaytan/MindaNews)
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