Roger B Rueda: Could you tell me a little about you as a writer? When you began writing seriously, how you got into your chosen genre, some of your favourite publications?
Peter Solis Nery: After 25 years, I’m still evolving as a writer. I started with short stories, got into poetry, dabbled into screenplay, wrote award-winning plays. I’m still dipping my fingers into everything, and you haven’t seen the best of me yet.
Roger B Rueda: What is your personal philosophy?
Peter Solis Nery: Three things: Try not to hurt others. Always better yourself. Believe in something.
Roger B Rueda: Did you find a lot of encouragement from the adults around you, or was it more a self- generated confidence - the positive response from your peers? What kept you focused on writing rather than some other enterprise through the early years?
Peter Solis Nery: Encouragement from adults, no! My parents were poor. What kept me writing were the awards, the grants, the publications.
Roger B Rueda: Are you currently working on anything?
Peter Solis Nery: I’m always working on something. That’s how I keep my fans and critics guessing. Now, that I’ve been winning in the English division of the Palanca Awards, who can stop me?
Roger B Rueda: Do you consider yourself a certain type of poet? Have you been termed a certain type of poet by others? If so has it frustrated you or has it reinforced your own feelings on who you are as a poet?
Peter Solis Nery: As early as 1999, my literary peers in Iloilo have crowned me as The Prince of Ngoyngoy [Sob Poetry] because of my obvious lyricism. I guess you can call me a lyric poet. I like my works charged high with emotions and sentiments, and I find nothing wrong with that. One of the funnier monikers I earned was “The Millionaire Writer,” fueled by my big money wins at the 1998 Centennial Literary Prize (which awarded one million pesos to first prize winners), and the 2001 Cinemanila International Film Festival Scriptwriting Contest (which published a pot prize of half a million pesos). My total combined earning between 1998 and 2003 was nowhere near the million peso mark, but that’s between me and the BIR. Haha. I wouldn’t challenge that title now. I became a millionaire before I was forty.
Roger B Rueda: Are there truths in the sound of poetry that are lost when poetry is read silently? Are there poems that are meant to be read in silence, perhaps a silent meditation on meaning, that don't need to be read out loud? What kind of poems do you write? Which ones do you prefer?
Peter Solis Nery: I’m sure there are poems that are better read silently; and in the case of concrete poems, they have to be seen on the page for their maximum impact. I lean more towards the oral/aural type of poetry. I want my poems read aloud and heard, because that’s how I write them.
Roger B Rueda: Where is home, the one in your heart?
Peter Solis Nery: Home is where my fans are. What can I say? I love being idolized! Which hypocritical writers say they don’t?
Roger B Rueda: Who are your influences?
Peter Solis Nery: Oh, they are many. The big three are: Rainier Maria Rilke (Austrian), Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French), Matsuo Basho (Japanese).
Roger B Rueda: Did reading a poem first spark the desire to write poetry or was it an experience?
Peter Solis Nery: Learning poetry in elementary school made me say, ‘Hey, I can do that!’
Roger B Rueda: What goal do you seek through your poetry, to discover, to influence, to re-vision history?
Peter Solis Nery: I write poetry to express my emotions. Everything else is either a bonus, or crap.
Roger B Rueda: How do you know a poem you have written is good?
Peter Solis Nery: Simply because I wrote it? Haha. Seriously, when I have said all that I wanted to say in a way that drains me, I feel pretty confident that what I have written is good. What others say negatively has no bearing to me. I only care about what good things critics say about my work.
Roger B Rueda: Do contemporary poets inspire you?
Peter Solis Nery: I should think so, but I prefer the old masters like Rumi, Petrarch, Li Po, and the Japanese of the Heian period.
Peter Solis Nery: Films, theatre, travel, and reading; and but mostly, films.
Roger B Rueda: Did you have as wonderful a childhood as I suspect you did? Any special memories?
Peter Solis Nery: Other than being poor, I had a decent childhood. At age 9, I won our town’s version of “Dancing with the Stars,” besting other dancers twice, thrice, four times, or even six times my age. My most special memory though is that of graduating from elementary school with so many medals and ribbons that there wasn’t enough space on my barong, and they had to be pinned on my pants!
Roger B Rueda: How do you submit your articles for publication?
Peter Solis Nery: Mostly by email, but sometimes my beloved Uncle Jun delivers them in person.
Roger B Rueda: What more, indeed! What is your favourite type of music?
Peter Solis Nery: I’m a big fan of musical theatre. I collect cast albums. I also have a penchant for the eclectic and obscure like 17th century funeral music, or royal music for medieval banquets.
Roger B Rueda: If you could have dinner with any famous person, who would it be?
Peter Solis Nery: With any famous person in history, no question that my choice would be Jesus of Nazareth. With any person alive today, I’d settle for the Pope.
Roger B Rueda: What are your plans for the future?
Peter Solis Nery: To establish the Peter Solis Nery Foundation for the Promotion and Preservation of Hiligaynon Literature and Ilonggo Arts.
Roger B Rueda: What is the importance of grammar for a writer?
Peter Solis Nery: I’m not very keen on grammar. I write and speak decent English. I think grammar serves an editor better. Haha.
Roger B Rueda: Do you want to say a little about it before we close? Or, if you had one bit of advice for unpublished authors looking for inspiration, what would it be?
Peter Solis Nery: I’ve been a newspaper editor in Iloilo for well over five years so I know that not a few Ilonggos writing in English have terrible grammar, but I don’t let that get in the way of judging a good copy. As for advice to new authors, I seriously suggest writing in the language they are most comfortable with. Remember that for me, writing is for the full expression of emotions and ideas.
Roger B Rueda: Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Peter Solis Nery: What is real to me is what I feel—and that extends to what I feel when I see or hear other people. I have a great sense of empathy, and that’s how I appropriate other people’s experiences.
Roger B Rueda: Could you say a bit about the mechanics of your writing process? Do you work regular hours or in bursts of inspiration? Do you edit yourself? Do you approach writing in a workmanlike way?
Peter Solis Nery: I’m not just a writer. I am also a nurse trying to earn a living in America, so I cannot really write as much as I want to. My writing process? I ruminate ideas a lot. On non-writing days—on days that I work at the hospital—I try to see the story arc, flesh out my characters, jot down vocabularies that I would want to use. Then, on my days off at the hospital—and when I am not traveling, I write in heat, sometimes four to six hours in a stretch. I edit for grammar after the first draft. After that, revisions and more revisions until I feel that the piece is flawless and perfect. I am my worst critic, so I can afford to ignore other critics.
Roger B Rueda: What's your own favourite thing about being a Filipino writer in Los Angeles?
Peter Solis Nery: Call it the ‘big fish in the small pond’ syndrome, but I would really rather like to write for Filipinos more than Angelenos. L.A., and the U.S. for that matter, just informs me because I have access to a wide array of films, theatre, museums, festivals, and bookshops. I would really rather like to write for Ilonggos—in the Hiligaynon language. If I am not already, I would like to be the towering name in the renaissance of Hiligaynon literature.
Roger B Rueda: Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
Peter Solis Nery: Not particularly. But I’ve been discovering “old” writers like Donald Barthelme and John Cheever. And don’t forget Petrarch, Octavio Paz, Federico Garcia Lorca in new translations.
Roger B Rueda: How did you come up with the title?
Peter Solis Nery: I’m a title person. Sometimes, I feel that my titles are better than the works themselves. Haha. I guess it has to do with my advertising sense. Read my titles: “I Flew a Kite for Pepe,” “The Essential Thoughts of a Purple Cat,” “Fireflies for a Yuppie,” “A Loneliness Greater than Love.” How can you be not intrigued by those?
Roger B Rueda: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Peter Solis Nery: After all the explications of scholars, it must be Basho. But you have to understand the history and the subtleties of haiku to appreciate Basho. Still, I follow him more closely than any other writers.
Roger B Rueda: What book are you reading now?
Peter Solis Nery: “Tennessee Williams’ Notebooks” edited by Margaret Bradham Thornton, and “Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex” by Olivia Hudson.
Roger B Rueda: How much of your stories is realistic?
Peter Solis Nery: Is the image in the mirror real? My stories are often set in the real world even if the events happening to them are artfully plotted. Or, if they are fantasy stories, I project real-life struggles in my fantastic characters and magical worlds. My job is to make some art in my work and my life. Your job is to figure out what’s real and what’s not.
[Peter Solis Nery, an Ilonggo writer, is an icon for many people. So far, he's the best writer in the West Visayas and one of the best in the Philippines. He's the writer that every Filipino must read.]
roger, i just saw this. thank you very much!
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