Spanish writer Lorena Escudero to conduct microfiction workshops at UP Diliman and Instituto Cervantes

Instituto Cervantes de Manila, in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, the University of the Philippines – Diliman, and several cultural partners, will present Lo bueno, si breve, a workshop on microfiction in Spanish led by Spanish author Lorena Escudero.

The sessions will take place 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).

Aimed at students and young writers, the workshop is designed to help participants hone their skills in Spanish creative writing. Through practical exercises, Escudero will guide them in exploring the expressive power of brevity and the techniques for crafting compelling microrrelatos (very short stories).

About the author

Lorena Escudero (Soria, 1985) holds a PhD in Physics and is a researcher at the University of Cambridge. As a microfiction writer, she has published Negativos (Torremozas, Spain, 2015), Formulario (La tinta del silencio, Mexico, 2019), and Incisiones (Quarks Ediciones Digitales, Peru, 2021). Her most recent work, Oxímoron (2023), won the Premio Iscariote for best book of microfiction.

The Rafael Palma Literary Contest

The workshop is held in conjunction with the VI Certamen Juvenil de Creación Literaria “Rafael Palma” (2025), a youth literary contest that pays tribute to the Filipino writer and intellectual Rafael Palma. Participants will submit original micro-stories written during the sessions. Winning entries will be published in Revista Filipina and awarded certificates from the University of the Philippines, as well as additional prizes, including a scholarship for a Spanish course at Instituto Cervantes de Manila.

By promoting microfiction as a creative form, this initiative seeks to inspire young Filipinos to write in Spanish, celebrate the country’s literary heritage, and strengthen cultural ties between Spain and the Philippines.

For more information and registration, please visit: https://forms.office.com/e/wcpRSGJ3sZ

This activity is presented by Instituto Cervantes de Manila, the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, AECID Philippines, UP Diliman 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 program, visit www.manila.cervantes.es or follow Instituto Cervantes on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila/