Ateneo University Press named Publisher of the Year at the 40th National Book Awards
14 May 2023
For the fifth consecutive year, the Ateneo de Manila University Press was named Publisher of the Year at the 40th National Book Awards, which took place on 13 May 2023 at the Manila Metropolitan Theater.

This announcement comes after 16 titles from the press were announced as finalists for the 40th National Book Awards, an annual prize that honors “the most prestigious book titles written, designed, and published in the Philippines.”
The winners from the 16 titles are as follow:
Best Novel in Filipino
Aswanglaut by Allan N Derain
Best Book of Literary Criticism/Cultural Studies in English
Campaigns of Knowledge: U.S. Pedagogies of Colonialism and Occupation in the Philippines and Japan by Malini Johar Schueller
Best Book on Media Studies
Hindi Nangyari Dahil Wala sa Social Media: Interogasyon ng Kulturang New Media sa Pilipinas by Rolando B Tolentino, Vladimeir B Gonzales, & Laurence Marvin S Castillo
Philippine Literary Arts Council Prize for Best Book of Poetry in English
College Boy by Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta

Alfonso T Ongpin Prize for Best Book on Art
Endangered Splendor: Manila’s Architectural Heritage, 1571-1960 (Volume 1 The Center: Intramuros, Binondo, San Nicolas, Tondo) by Fernando Zialcita and Erik Akpedonu, with Victor S Venida
Elfren S. Cruz Prize for Best Book in the Social Sciences
The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed by Robin Broad & John Cavanagh
Best Book in Philosophy
Repentance and Rebirth at the End of Life as We Know It by Agustin Martin G Rodriguez
Best Book Design
Endangered Splendor: Manila’s Architectural Heritage, 1571-1960 (Volume 1 The Center: Intramuros, Binondo, San Nicolas, Tondo), cover design, book design, layout, and artistic direction by Ali Figueroa & Erik Akpedonu; written by Fernando Zialcita and Erik Akpedonu, Victor S Venida
Maria Karina A Bolasco, director of the Ateneo University Press, was also conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Credited for encouraging writers, both unknown and established, to keep writing and keep publishing, Karina is described by Neni Sta Romana Cruz to be a “consummate publisher” who has won Publisher of the Year awards both for her stint in Anvil Publishing as well as for the Ateneo University Press.

Cruz continues: “We are grateful to Karina for blazing new trails in publishing so that books by Filipino authors and illustrators and book designers in various genres and popular topics became well known and recognized and enjoyed by readers here and abroad […] Thank you, Karina, for all you have done to promote Philippine books and readership. It has not been an easy nor painless journey, but all your initiatives are inspiring and so gratefully acknowledged—and have certainly been a significant leap for the industry.”
Congratulations!