About Alain Russ Dimzon

 

Alain Russ Dimzon is a Filipino poet, fictionist and lyricist. He was born on October 31, 1963 in Jaro, Iloilo City, Philippines. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a public school teacher. He finished his Bachelor in Local Government Administration Major in Public Safety and Law Enforcement at the Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCOF) and his Master in Public Administration at the Guimaras State College (GSC).

Dimzon’s earliest works were poems in English. These got published by reputable national magazines, journals and anthologies such as Philippines Free Press, Philippine Graphic, National Midweek, Sunday Inquirer of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Panorama of the Manila Bulletin, The Sunday Times,  Ani and CCP Literary Yearbook both of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Mantala and Patubas of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Native Words, Native Roots of the Mindanao State University, In Time Passing, There are Things of the Society of St. Paul, Under the Storm – International Movie and Arts Festival. His poem A Rain Scene won the first prize in the Home Life Poetry Contest in 1999.

After he decided to shift to writing in Hiligaynon, his native language, he became the first fellow in Hiligaynon Poetry to the UP National Writers’ Workshop in 1999. He was awarded the Gawad Emmanuel Lacaba (Best new Writer in Hiligaynon) by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in 2000. He was recipient of the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Hiligaynon Poetry awarded by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) in 2018.

His first full-blown book manuscript Ang Manunulat kag ang Pendulum (the Writer and the Pendulum), Hiligaynon poems with Englsih translation, won the Fray Luis de Leon Creative Writing Institute 2006 competitive creative writing grant and was published by the University of San Agustin Publishing House. Iloilo City, Philippines: 2008 ISBN 978-971-9697-31-2.

His other awards in Hiligaynon poetry were a Pasidungog (An Award of Merit) for a poem Tingulan kag Tig-ilinit given by Hiligaynon Magasin in 1997 and a Karangalan Banggit (Honorable Mention) for his batch of poems entitled Ang Bakunawa kag Iban pa nga mga Binalaybay given by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) in 2007.

On January 22, 2019, President Rodrigo duterte appointed Dimzon as Commissioner representing Hiligaynon at the Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino).

Dimzon’s fictions have won prizes from the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature: Binukot , Third Place (2012) and Bahal nga Tuba, Third Place (2016).

He wrote the lyrics for an avant-garde song for a choral piece in A capella, Ang Paghabyog Sang Pendulum (Thrusting the Pendulum), composed by renowned Filipino musicologist Dr. Christine Muyco, which was given by the Asian composer’s League a world premiere in Chinese Taipei. In 2011.

Dimzon served as artist-in-residence, consultant and chairperson for Creative Writing at the Special Program for the Arts (now School for the Arts) of the Iloilo National High School, the first high school for the arts outside Luzon from 2003 to 2008.

He was chairperson of the Arts Council of Iloilo Commjittee on Literary Arts from 1999 to 2001. He was founding chairman of Hubon Manunulat, a contemporary language-literature organization based at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas. He is a member of the Philippine Center for (Poets, essayists, Novelists and Playwrights) International PEN.

 

 

Books

·         Ang Manunulat kag ang Pendulum (the Writer and the Pendulum), Universiity of San Agustin Publishing House, 2007                     

·         Repentances and Rehabilitations, Kasingkasing Press, 2016

·         Walo kag Dose Na, (Co-authored with Romulo Pangan), Kasingkasing Press, 2015

·         Tingog sa Iya mga Alagyan (Co-authored with Romulo Pangan), Kasingkasing Press, 2014

·         Balagbibatasan, Kasingkasing Press, 2019

·         Ortograpiya Sang Hiligaynon (Dimzon et al), Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2021

·         Bokabularyong Traylingguwal (Co-authored with Agnes Dimzon), Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2023

·         Ang Buka nga Landong, Kasingkasing Press, 2023