Now on its second year, Tulaan sa Tren will once again give aspiring poets a chance to have their creations posted in the LRT and get published in the Tulaan sa Tren 2 poetry compilation.

The National Book Development Board, Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), Vibal Foundation, and the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP), are encouraging would-be poets to showcase their work.

Contest rules and guidelines are as follows:

1) The contest is open from 22 June 2009 until 22 July 2009 to all Filipino citizens of all ages.

2) The NBDB will accept original, unpublished poems with the theme "Journeys/Paglalakbay." Entries may be in English, Filipino, or any of the regional languages (with English or Tagalog translation if written in a regional language) and should be up to 200 words long. Only one (1) poem per author will be accepted.

3) The Board of Judges will select three (3) winners each for the English and Filipino categories. For each category, the Grand Prize winner will receive P5,000.00, second prize winner will receive P3,000.00, and third prize winner will receive P2,000.00. Winning entries will be posted in LRT trains alongside the works of established Filipino poets and will be published in a compilation of Tulaan sa Tren 2 poems. The NBDB shall share copyright with the authors for their winning poems for purposes of broadcast and/or publication in the NBDB's readership campaigns.

4) Entries must be submitted along with the Official Entry Form. The author's name and address must only appear in the Official Entry Form and must not appear on the entry. Entries may be e-mailed to ' ); document.write( addy49094 ); document.write( '' ); //-->\n tulaansatren@nbdb.gov.ph ' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ' ); //--> or sent postmarked no later than July 22, 2009 to:

Office of the Executive Director
National Book Development Board
2/F NPO Bldg.
EDSA cor. NIA Northside Road
Diliman, Quezon City

5) The winners will be contacted by the NBDB prior to the launch of Tulaan sa Tren 2 and will be awarded during the project launch tentatively set in August
Entry forms may be downloaded on the NBDB website.

The daily commute became more interesting in last year's readership promotion as the Metro Manila public was greeted by verses from the country's gifted wordsmiths. Poetry by Rio Alma, Cirilo Bautista, Conchitina Cruz, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Vim Nadera, Benilda Santos, Marjorie Evasco, and Jose Lacaba were read by personalities such as Nikki Gil, Chin-Chin Gutierrez, Rhea Santos, Christine Bersola-Babao, Lyn Ching-Pascual, and Miriam Quiambao.

"We hope that the people who will perhaps encounter our poetry for the first time in this novel way, will realize that Philippine literature is something we can all be proud of, and that they will look up the authors, whose works we featured, to discover more treasures," said NBDB Executive Director Andrea Pasion-Flores in an article about last year's Tulaan.

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