Several companies like Precious Pages Corporation; Lampara Publishing House, Inc.; RedLine Media Publishing, Inc.; Life is Beautiful Printing Corporation; and Bookware Publishing Corporation take part in an annual gathering—the Aklat Awards—wherein local talents are recognized and awarded.
Aklat Awards creates an avenue for Filipino writers and illustrators from different publications to showcase their talents. Readers and bloggers could also share thoughts about their favorite authors and other good reads. This annual event gives us a glimpse of what’s the best among the local published books during the previous year.
The 2nd Aklat Awards was held last January 27, 2018 at the Precious Events Center in Quezon City. The masters of the ceremony, Breakada hosts, also made their break by moving from Facebook live to being the event’s host. With their hosting, Aklat Awards remained interactive by facilitating short activities to entertain the guests. The event was opened by Hazel a.k.a. DJ Basha and Marky a.k.a. DJ Empopoy. Then the announcement of the nominees and winner(s) for each category was delivered by the brand managers: Melanie Esguerra of Black Ink Comics; Aiko Salazar of Lampara Books; Malou Medina of Bookware; Toni Velasco for Reb Fiction, Red Room, and LIB. While the special awards such as Prolific Writers, Loyalty Award and Novel of the Year were handed by Segundo Matias Jr. and Edith Garcia of Precious Hearts Romances. Along with the awarding, Pride Lit, the newest part of the Precious family was introduced and the return of Booklat was also announced. The event also gave recognition to two large readers’ group: PAK Readers Corner and SMP (Samahan ng Mambabasa ng Pocketbook) for taking part in the nomination and voting of the writers and their works.
For Lampara Books, Pamela Imperial won the Most Favorite Writer, Aaron Asis for the Most Favorite Illustrator, and the Most Favorite Children’s book goes to Ang Supremo at Ang Kuweba by April Jade Biglaen and Ivan Reverente. While under Black Ink Comics, CJ Dee was recognized as the Most Favorite Illustrator. Then Ice Habunal bagged two awards taking Most Favorite Writer and Most Favorite Comic Book for her work Black Cat.
Moving on to the Most Favorite Young Adult Novels, Bloody Crayons by Josh Argonza from Reb Fiction and It’s Complicated by pajama_addict from Pink and Purple won the award. Under LIB, the Most Favorite Novel is Falling Series by C.C. The writer also took the Most Favorite Erotic Novel for Possessive Series Book 3: Train Wolkzbin along with Dior Madrigal for The Deal and Elise Estrella for A Romance for James. Lastly, for Pink and Purple, Simoun Azul by xxakanexx won the Most Favorite New Adult Novel.
For the overall PHR awards, the Most Favorite Miniseries (3-4 books) is the An Online Romance Trilogy by Nikki Karenina, Marione Ashley, and Cady Lorenzana. While for the Most Favorite Series (5 books and more), Cady Lorenzana bagged the award for her International Billionaires. 40 Days to Heaven by Heart Yngrid and Love Story by Sonia Francesca secured their place as the Most Favorite Single Novel. Also, Vampire’s Vow by Spring Mendez and Victoria Amor for her Club Red: Azir got their award as the Most Favorite Gothic Novel.
Being the best among the best, the Most Favorite Writers are xxakanexx under Pink and Purple, Mandie Lee and Heart Yngrid under Reb Fiction, Dior Madrigal for MSV, Cady Lorenzana under PHR and C.C. under LIB and Red Room.
Before the ceremony ended, special awards were given wherein prominent writers bagged a number of awards for their outstanding works and loyalty for the company. Rose Tan received the Loyalty Award. While Luna King was honored as the Most Prolific Writer of 2017 for publishing a total of 39 works to Precious Pages Corporation. Lastly, Maricar Dizon won Novel of the Year for her work Moon Bride.
Breakada ended the event by quoting Mr. Segundo Matias, Jr. stating, “Magbasa para tumalino.” Truly, reading has been a part of people’s lives. Whatever book you are reading, whatever genre it is, or whoever wrote it, a book is a book. There will be knowledge attached to each pages. Read more, nominate, vote, and see your favorite artist accept their awards on the next annual event of Aklat Awards.
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