The sessions will be held on August 27, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and on August 28, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. at Instituto Cervantes de Manila (Makati branch).

Designed for students and young writers, the workshop will offer practical training in the art of microrrelato (very short stories). Through hands-on exercises, Escudero will demonstrate the expressive strength of brevity and guide participants in crafting compelling narratives within limited words.

About the Author

Lorena Escudero (Soria, 1985) holds a PhD in Physics and is currently a researcher at the University of Cambridge. Alongside her scientific career, she has established herself as a leading voice in microfiction. Her published works include Negativos (Torremozas, Spain, 2015), Formulario (La tinta del silencio, Mexico, 2019), and Incisiones (Quarks Ediciones Digitales, Peru, 2021). Her latest book, Oxímoron (2023), received the Premio Iscariote for Best Book of Microfiction.

The Rafael Palma Literary Contest

The workshop is part of the 6th Rafael Palma Youth Literary Contest (2025), which honors the legacy of Filipino writer and intellectual Rafael Palma. Participants will submit original micro-stories produced during the sessions. Winning entries will be published in Revista Filipina and awarded certificates from the University of the Philippines, along with prizes that include a scholarship for a Spanish course at Instituto Cervantes de Manila.

By fostering microfiction as a literary form, this initiative seeks to inspire young Filipinos to write creatively in Spanish, celebrate the nation’s Hispanic literary heritage, and deepen cultural ties between Spain and the Philippines.

Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/wcpRSGJ3sZ

This program is presented by Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, AECID Philippines, UP Diliman’s Department of European Languages, Revista Filipina, the Education Office of the Embassy of Spain, the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española, and AFELE – Asociación Filipina de Enseñanza de ELE.

For more information about Instituto Cervantes’ cultural events, visit www.manila.cervantes.es or follow Instituto Cervantes Manila on Facebook.