Tahanan Books receives the Gawad Dangal ng Panitikan 2022 from the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino

May 5, 2022

Filipino may not be Reni's first language, but Filipino is the cornerstone on which Tahanan Books was founded. At Tahanan, our constant goal has been to nurture a child's love of reading through books that celebrate Philippine culture and history. Through the years, we have celebrated Filipino as a living language—from publishing the classic folk song "Bahay Kubo" in 1993, to Christine Bellen's collections of Severino Reyes's tales of Lola Basyang, to Auri Asuncion's picture books that teach language through the use of onomatopoeia, homonyms, and double words.

We would be remiss not to thank our talented and dedicated team of colleagues and friends—the authors, translators, illustrators, researchers, consultants, editors, and printers, without whom these books would not have seen the light of day.

I'm happy to tell you that 2022 marks 30 years that Tahanan has been making meaningful books for Filipino children and families. We thank the KWF for endowing our celebration with this most welcome recognition of our work. It is an honor and privilege to be among this year's recipients. On behalf of our staff, we the Tahanan staff and our EIC Reni Roxas, we gratefully accept this award.

In closing, it's been said that language is a measure of our lives. One could also say that books are a measure of all that we hold essential and worth passing on to future generations. We write—we make books—because we know that books will outlast us. The world will never tire of books because human beings will never tire of telling stories and listening to stories. Storytelling is in our blood. Books will outlive us. Books are forever. Long live the books!

*This is an English translation of the acceptance speech shared in Filipino during the awarding ceremony at the Hotel Rembrant in Tomas Morato, Quezon City on the 27th of April 2022