Bryan Mari Argos on breaking myths and winning big in Hiligaynon Fiction

By Noel Galon de Leon

On the morning of August 19, 2025, as sunlight crept hesitantly through the small windows of his room in Roxas City, Bryan Mari Argos reached for his phone. It was routine, his phone doubled as a lamp in the dimness of dawn. But on this day, his screen bore something different, something that would set his heart racing, an email announcing that he had won the Gawad Bienvenido Lumbera 2025 for Maikling Kuwento sa Hiligaynon. He chuckles as he recalls the moment. “The first thought that went through my head was, ay basi gamay lang nag-join, amo sina nga nagdaog ako. I’ve never really been fully confident with any of my work, and maybe that’s what drives me to just keep reading, learning, and writing.” Yet as the news sank in, he found himself blurting out mid-shower, ‘Hala, nagdaug ko ya?’ The disbelief soon transformed into resolve. “I always ask myself; how can I use this win to push forward the advocacies I believe in? That’s the bigger picture.”

Argos traces his earliest encounter with writing back to when he was just seven or eight years old. He recalls how he would often recite poems or stories out of thin air, inspired by simple observations. At that time, he didn’t even speak Hiligaynon yet. His first writing models came from classic literature, texts his grandmother, Alicia Javier Argos, introduced him to. A teacher of literature and English, she planted the seeds of storytelling in him. Alongside her, his grandfather, Mamerto Vidal Argos, and his grand-aunt, Josefa Vidal Argos, reinforced the habit of reading.

Josefa, now 104 years old, still remains one of his sharpest proofreaders. “She does it without eyeglasses, in font size 12!” Bryan laughs, his admiration tinged with pride. His family, deeply steeped in the tradition of education and letters, formed the sturdy foundation upon which his writing journey stands.

Growing up in Western Visayas, Argos was immersed in a literary heritage shaped by figures like Magdalena Jalandoni, Ramon Muzones, and his mentor, Dr. Leoncio Deriada. Deriada, he recalls, practically dragged him “tooth and nail, shouting and kicking” into writing in Hiligaynon. That reluctant initiation became a turning point.

“Reading and idolizing writers from our region made me deeply enamored with my own tongue,” he explains. To him, engaging with fellow regional writers isn’t merely an academic exercise, it’s an act of cultural affirmation. “What we write after being exposed to fellow writers ceases to be just another poem or story. It becomes a fragment of our identity, an assertion of our power as a community.” This is why Argos writes not only in English but also in Hiligaynon, and sometimes in Filipino. One of his aspirations is to eventually write in Kinaray-a, the language of his ancestry. For him, creating in the mother tongue is an act of preservation. “What gives me joy is being able to tell our stories in a language that is ours. When I finish a Hiligaynon poem or story, I feel as though I’ve given life not only to the piece but to the language itself.”

Unlike many who meticulously prepare for contests, Argos thrives in what he calls “frantic writing.” He writes when a story insists on being told, sometimes dictating into a tape recorder when neither typewriter nor computer is available. Even today, he doesn’t own a laptop. “Maybe I’ll use my prize money to make a downpayment on one,” he jokes.

But his stories aren’t spontaneous bursts, they’re brewed patiently in his mind, sometimes for years. “The actual writing happens at the very tail-end of my process,” he explains. One of his award-winning pieces took ten years before it finally met paper. Throughout, he reads voraciously, not just for pleasure but to learn from others. “I hope that doesn’t make me a literary vampire,” he adds, half-serious, half-amused.

When it comes time to submit to competitions, he relies less on strategies and more on trust. “I make it a point to trust my emotions. If it resonates with me as a reader, then I hope it will resonate with the judges. If the time has come for a tale or poem to see the light of day, fate will step in.”

Winning the Gawad Bienvenido Lumbera is significant for Argos not only as a personal triumph but as a milestone for Hiligaynon literature. His story, which touches on the lingering aswang stigma in Capiz, is part of a larger advocacy against misinformation and misinterpretation of his province’s cultural identity.

“My mantra has always been, when I am able to open a door, I will jam my foot in the opening so that others can also walk through,” he says. For him, victories are never solitary, they are collective opportunities. Already, he is seeing young writers from Capiz emerge with courage, daring to step into the literary arena.

Still, he acknowledges the loneliness of this path. “Sometimes your own family won’t even understand what you’re writing about. But persist, hold on. This win is proof that we Visayans can hold our own in the national literary arena. Indi gid kita malipat, we are Visayans, kuna kita sang tinaga kag sang sugilanon. Shall we settle for anything less? Definitely not.”

For the many aspiring writers who now look up to him, Argos offers simple but hard-earned advice: read, then write, and never stop. “Don’t let other people, or yourself tell you to stop. Don’t let losses keep you from writing.”

As for contests, he urges young writers not to be intimidated. “Join not to win, but to be read. Even if you don’t win, at least a panel of experts has read your work, that is already enough. Winning just widens the sphere of influence of your piece. Remember, not all winning works are good, and not all good works win.”

Argos’s journey has never been just about him. As a poet and fictionist writing mostly in Hiligaynon and English, he has committed his career to championing the preservation and flourishing of Visayan voices. His book Ang Hangaway kag ang Higante, the first Hiligaynon novella for children and young adults, is set to be released with an English translation by the University of the Philippines Press under the Philippine Translators’ Series. He is also the author of Kapid, a children’s storybook published by Kasingkasing Press.

His works have earned him multiple awards, including recognitions from the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and, now, the Gawad Bienvenido Lumbera. A fellow of several national writers’ workshops, among them the Iligan National Writers’ Workshop, the Iyas National Writers’ Workshop, and the 61st Silliman University National Writers’ Workshop, Argos balances his literary pursuits with his role as the City Tourism Officer of Roxas City, Capiz.

Above all, he remains committed to ensuring that literature from the region is not just heard but celebrated. “For me, writing is heritage, advocacy, and resistance rolled into words. It’s not merely for myself, it’s for my people.”

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Noel Galon de Leon is a writer and educator at University of the Philippines Visayas, where he teaches in both the Division of Professional Education and U.P. High School in Iloilo. He serves as an Executive Council Member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts-National Committee on Literary Arts.