Kwentillion Young Adult Readers Carnival

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Ah, so many bookish events in such a short span of time, are you excited?

If you’ve been following Kwentillion on Facebook, you would’ve read about this already, but in case you’re not, then read on! Presenting the 1st Kwentillion Young Adult Readers’ Carnival!

Kwentillion Young Adult Readers' Carnival

The event will be on July 21, 1-5pm at Bestsellers Robinsons Galleria. This is your chance to meet fellow YA literature fans in Manila, plus also meet Kwentillion contributors and other authors. :) If you have your copy of the magazine, you can have them signed there, or if you don’t have them yet, you can get yours (you should!) at the event.

There are other fun events, too, like the Author Cage Match, where teams will convince the audience that their chosen author is the best, and panel discussions with Kwentillion contributors and Philippine YA authors. Here are the panelists who will be at the event:

For the Kwentillion Panel:

For the Philippine Young Adult Creators Panel:

There will also be previews of current YA books on the shelves of National and why we think you should get them, as well as previews of the upcoming releases. If that’s not enough, there will be a YA Books Only Sale inside the store, and participants will receive a discount coupon as soon as they register which is valid for a one-time purchase inside the store.

For more information and updates, you can visit Rocket Kapre and Kwentillion’s Facebook page. YA fans in the Philippines, this is a must-go-to event! It’s really unfortunate that I’m out of town on the same weekend (without Atrix 4Gs), but I’m sure this will be a fun event. Is it too early to wish for a part 2? :)

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Kwentillion: A Million Stories to be Told

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Last weekend was the Summer Komikon and I don’t really go there except if I’m looking for autographs for some of the local series I follow, or if there’s an interesting launch. This time around, it was the latter, and I am very proud to say that it’s the first launch I attended where I actually went onstage because I was a part of the project! :)

Kwentillion: A Million Stories to be ToldFrom the Summit Media page:

Kwentillion Magazine is the country’s first publication dedicated to young adult literature and media, featuring YA-themed comics and fiction by Filipino creators. The bi-monthly, black and white magazine (with an eight-page colored spread in every issue) features reviews and previews of young adult books, interviews with creators, and articles which tackle a wide variety of topics of interest to the YA community.

I co-wrote an article here with my friend Chachic about YA books in 2012:

Apocalypse Can Wait!

It’s not the first time I saw my name in print (I was in another independent magazine a few years ago :P), and I have been writing for Summit and other places online for a while now, but it’s quite nice to see my name in a project like this, something that I am passionate about. The other comics and articles are all awesome too — it’s always nice to read more local fiction. :)

The first issue is really a test run, and the next issue would depend on how well this first one sells, or how much buzz it generates. So! If you like young adult literature, or you want to read more about Filipino comics and fiction, Kwentillion is the magazine you are looking for! It’s available in National Bookstore and Powerbooks branches (last thing I heard, NBS Bestsellers in Galleria has copies) for Php 150. It has pretty good print quality too — I was surprised at the size of the magazine when I finally got my copy.

I’ll try to post a more comprehensive “review” of this issue later this week (promise to get rid of the personal bias over the project :D). I’m so honored to be a part of this project, and it was so cool to see it come to life. :)

Here’s a post from one of our editors about Kwentillion, and why he thinks this project is important. And then, you can also follow Kwentillion on Twitter or like the page on Facebook for more updates. :D

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