Sands and Coral is the long-running student literary journal of Silliman University, situated in Dumaguete City, Philippines. The 1997 edition stands as a landmark thematic landmark, subverting its traditional annual student showcase format into a highly specialized environmental volume titled Voices in the Wilderness: Writers in Their Environment. Sponsored by the university’s Center of Excellence in Coastal Resources Management (COE-CRM) with financial assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), this issue captures a crucial historical moment when academic literature and international ecological advocacy intersected in the Visayas region. Advised by Timothy R. Montes, the publication features localized, eco-conscious literary work from towering Philippine authors and workshop mainstays—including National Artist for Literature Edith L. Tiempo, Anthony L. Tan, and environmental journalist Lina Sagaral Reyes—alongside a proactive new generation of student editors. This unique volume remains an invaluable archival witness to how the mid-1990s Philippine creative community mobilized English creative writing to address urgent national and local conservation crises, solidifying Dumaguete's footprint as a vanguard of ecological humanities.
Voices in the Wilderness: Writers in Their Environment (Sands and Coral 1997 Special Issue)