AT AGE 90, DR. Edith Lopez Tiempo, National Artist for Literature (1999) is coming home to her mother town, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, where a grand homecoming and tribute awaits her today, August 10, at the Nueva Vizcaya State University-Bayombong Campus.

Uncapping the events at 8:30 in the morning is a lecture-forum, ?Discovering/Uncovering/Recovering the Charmer?s Box: A Conference on the National Artist Edith L. Tiempo,? that will feature not only the National Artist but five Tiempo experts and literary scholars from UST, Ateneo and other renowned universities in the country who shall be giving lectures on the works of the National Artist.

Members of the academic circles of Nueva Vizcaya and other state colleges and universities in the Cagayan Valley Region and high schools in the province have been invited and are expected to attend the event at the NVSU Library Complex Mini-theater.

To complete the Novo Vizcayanos? accolade, ?The Return: A Tribute to the National Artist for Literature Dr. Edith Lopez-Tiempo? will showcase a reading of her poems by Regina Danguilan and dance renditions by the NVSU Voices & Graces Cultural Federation.

A theatrical production on one of her novels, directed by a faculty of the Philippine Science High School Cagayan Valley Campus, will feature selected out-of-school youth and students of the province.

Tiempo?s ceremonial conferment of the name, ?Casta,? a Gaddang term for beauty, will also highlight the matinee celebration. Matching the Novo Vizcayano communities? enthusiastic welcome, the municipality of Bayombong shall also be awarding her a resolution declaring her birthday as a local holiday.

Known as a poet and fictionist, Tiempo was born on April 22, 1919 in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, where she also finished her high school education. After her pre-law at UP Diliman, she finished the degree BS Education major in English as magna cum laude at Siliman University-Dumaguete in 1947, while she obtained her Master?s and Doctorate degrees in University of Iowa, USA in 1949 and in University of Denver in Colorado, USA in 1958, respectively. She later went back to Siliman University where she taught and co-founded with her late husband the Siliman Writers Workshop.

An award-winning poet and fictionist, Tiempo has indeed stamped a niche with her sterling achievements in the field of literature, securing her the National Artist for Literature Award in 1999.

Initiated by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts and the UP Institute of Creative Writing, the tribute is carried out in coordination with NVSU, through the university president and project director Dr. Marilou S. Gilo-Abon, with the help of the local government of the municipality of Bayombong, headed by John Severino G. Bagasao.