SEOUL, 5 June 2016 - Award-winning Filipino writer Jose "Butch" Dalisay, Jr. read excerpts of his works and took in questions at a well-attended public lecture held at Sentro Rizal Seoul in the Philippine Embassy Chancery on Sunday, 5 June 2016.

Prof. Dalisay, who was in the country partly to deliver a lecture before Korean literature professors at the state-run Seoul National University on Saturday, 4th of June, read to a mixed crowd of 40 mostly fellow Filipinos an excerpt from his 1992 novel, "Killing Time in a Warm Place," as well as three pieces from his regular Philippine Star column, "Penman".

In "Mausoleum in Romblon," he recounted a semi-autobiographical story about manananggal (disembodied vampires in Philippine folklore) he encountered on a visit to his grandfather's tomb. In "Goodwill to Filipinos," a column he wrote for Christmas in 1996, he told of a true-to-life story about Miss Maria Clara of Lower Manhattan and Filipinos' passion for beauty contests.

His last two readings involved sartorial mishaps. In "Zipless in Africa," he read his 2002 account of how he survived a missing zipper pull before touching down in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. In "Bad-Hair Day," he told of his hair-raising experience visiting the Blue Room, the sanctum of Volkswagen executives in its HQ in Wolfsburg, as VP for Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines in Diliman in 2008.

During the open forum, Prof. Dalisay fielded questions on myriad topics, such as the Filipino identity, repatriates, children's books, creative non-fiction, and the country's social classes.

Asked about contemporary Filipino literature, the writer said, notwithstanding the relative increase in the number of Filipino authors in the international publishing scene, that Filipinos do not write enough novels. He also predicted that the Great Filipino Novel, if one were to achieve universal acclaim, would be one written in an indigenous Filipino language translated into English.

"It is a privilege to have Prof. Dalisay speak before our community on the second event organized by Sentro Rizal Seoul following its establishment in March this year," Philippine Ambassador to Korea Raul S. Hernandez said in remarks concluding the two-hour afternoon interaction, which closed with merienda (snacks).

Dr. Dalisay, a full-time professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines, has won various awards and prizes for his fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction, and screenplays, including 16 Palanca Awards. The Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature are known as the "Pulitzer Prize of the Philippines" in terms of prestige.

He has authored more than 20 books mainly in the English language since 1984. His novel Soledad's Sister was shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize in 2007.