Panpacific University, through its NAKEM Center, held a Literary Writeshop on November 9 and 10 at the events center. This aims to train aspiring writers to use Ilocano language in writing poems and memoirs. 

Dr. Sonja A. Chan, an Ilocano professor and poet, was invited to talk about Ilocano as a Literary Language and Styles in Writing Poems where she discussed the importance of using the Ilocano language in expressing feelings and emotions poetically. She also shared several styles of writing poems that make an impact on the readers. Towards the end of her talk, she recited some of her poems written in her book entitled Listen Umarasaas Dear ‘Tay Heart Rikna. 

The other speaker is Mr. Junley L. Lazaga, a University Artist of the University of the Philippines Baguio and an award-winning author. Through his interactive talk, he taught the participants about the techniques, styles, and forms of writing memoirs. He also mentioned that the students’ life memory is their investment in writing memoirs. They just have to tell it in a compelling narrative. 

Break-out session was held in the afternoon. The participants were divided into three: Poem Writing, Memoir Writing, and Layouting. The Poem and Memoir writing workshop were facilitated by the speakers together with Mr. Ariel Leonin, Mr. Marvin Sermonia, Jr., Mr. Uriel Angelico De Perio, Ms. Kathlyn Aragon, and Ms. Sairine Joy Bacoy. On the other hand, the Layouting session was facilitated by Mr. Jann Nathanniel Jaravatta, the Strategic Communications Staff of the University. The layouting session was held to train the participants to layout the literary outputs in preparation for the printing of the Literary Folio of the NAKEM Center of the University. 

 The second day was the revision and presentation of outputs. The participants read their poems and memoirs while the others presented their dummy layouts. Overall, there are around 120 participants from the different schools in both campuses of Panpacific University—Urdaneta and Tayug. Following the success of the program is a plan to invite other Universities to join the next NAKEM Literary Writeshop.