First established in March 1948, Sands and Coral serves as the prestigious annual student-led literary supplement to The Sillimanian, the campus student organ of Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Philippines. This sixth edition, published in 1953, marks a significant moment of institutional transition as it is the first volume overseen by renowned poet and critic Ricaredo D. Demetillo following the five-year advisory tenure of co-founder Rodrigo T. Feria. The volume is historically and culturally significant for its active role in shaping the mid-20th-century Philippine literary canon and academic criticism in English. It features foundational creative works alongside vital, real-time national literary debates. Notable inclusions are Edilberto K. Tiempo's short story "The Witch," an enduring piece of Philippine fiction that draws deeply on Visayan folklore and provincial dynamics. Additionally, the issue contains highly influential critical frameworks of the era, such as Ricaredo Demetillo's rigorous structural evaluation of contemporary N. V. M. Gonzalez, David Quemada's critique of poet Bienvenido N. Santos, and National Artist Edith L. Tiempo's scholarly essay outlining "Point of View in Fiction". By archiving these dynamic discourses alongside critical observations of postwar national publishing booms by Dolores S. Feria, this item stands as an essential historical text capturing the maturation of the "Silliman Writers" and modern Philippine literature.
Sands and Coral, Vol. 6 (Literary Supplement to The Sillimanian, Literary Magazine of 1953)