FOR six consecutive years, the Ateneo de Manila University Press was named as the Publisher of the Year at the 41st National Book Awards.

This brings Ateneo’s tally up to 7 total Publisher of the Year wins.

“We forge on and commit to the vision and mission of the Press, to produce knowledge to build a better nation,” Ateneo University Press director Rica Bolipata-Santos said.

“If anything, the Press, together with its brave authors, remains oriented toward the future, determined to publish critical and creative material that helps us remember the past, keeping faith to what Rizal said in the Noli, that ‘not all slept in the night of our ancestors,’” she added.

Of the 19 Ateneo Press finalists, 6 emerged as winners. These works are:

• Yñiga by Glenn Diaz (Best Novel in English)
• Song of the Mango and Other New Myths by Vida Cruz-Borja (National Artist Cirilo F Bautista Prize for Best Book of Short Fiction in English)
• Kalandrakas Part 1, 1890-1945: Stories and Storytellers of/on Regions in Mindanao, 1890-1990 and Kalandrakas Part 2, 1946-1990: Stories and Storytellers of/on Regions in Mindanao, 1890-1990, edited by Ricardo De Ungria (Best Anthology in English)
• Plus/+ at Iba Plus, Maramihan: New Philippine Nonfiction on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identities, edited by Rolando Tolentino and Chuckberry J. Pascual (Best Anthology in Filipino)
• Isang Dalumat ng Panahon ni Christian Jil Benitez (Best Book of Literary Criticism/Cultural Studies)
• Transfiguring Mindanao: A Mindanao Reader, edited by Jose Jowel Canuday and Joselito Sescon; book design by Karl Castro (Elfren S. Cruz Prize For Best Book in the Social Sciences and Best Book Design)

The National Book Awards, managed by the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics’ Circle, is an annual prize that recognizes “the most prestigious book titles written, designed, and published in the Philippines.”