For the generation of Filipinos who read Lualhati Bautista’s Dekada 70, set during the martial law years, the novel was an awakening of political consciousness. Bautista, one of the country’s better-known contemporary writers of Tagalog fiction, was the recipient of numerous literary awards, most notably the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, which she won for the novels Gapo (1980), Dekada 70 (1983), and Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa? (1984). She has also written for film, winning best screenplay awards for Bulaklak ng City Jail and Kadenang Bulaklak. After close to four decades of writing novels, short stories, teleplays, and screenplays, Lualhati Bautista has come to be known for her honest realism, her courageous exploration of women’s issues, and her compelling female protagonists, who confront difficult situations at home and in the workplace with uncommon grit and strength.

Scholars will be especially interested in a VCD of an interview with Bautista conducted by Marra PL. Lanot for ALIWW on March 2, 2004. In this two-hour interview, edited down from an original four hours of footage, Bautista talks at length about her personal history and about her writing. This in-depth “one-on-one” with Bautista is certain to be a precious resource for the study of the life, times, and work of this significant contemporary fictionist.