Canonical Authors

a. Who is Jose Garcia Villa?

a Filipino literary critic, poet, painter, and short story writer.
born on August 5, 1908 in Manila.
he gained both local and international recognition for his
works.
he was named as the National Artist for Literature in 1973, and
he was also a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship.
some of his well-known literary works are "Mir-i-nisa" (won in
the Philippines Free Press in 1929), and "Footnote to Youth"
(published in 1933).
he died on July 7, 1997.
 b. Who is Carlos P. Romulo?
a Filipino diplomat, statesman, journalist, and
soldier.
was born on January 14, 1898 in Intramuros,
Manila and grew up in Camiling, Tarlac.
first Filipino journalist who was awarded with the
Pulitzer Prize in Journalism.
also, first Asian who served as the president of the
United Nations General Assembly.
 "I am a Filipino" is one of the many essays written by Carlos P.
Romulo. It was published in The Philippines Herald in August
1941.
wrote the book entitled I Saw the Fall of the Philippines, in
which he narrated his personal experiences as an aide-de-camp
to General Douglas MacArthur in Corregidor.
followed by a sequel, I See the Philippines Rise, a journalistic
account of the Philippine War in 1944.
conferred as National Artist for Literature in 1982.
died on December 15, 1985.
 c. Who is Francisco Arcellana?
a Filipino teacher and a contemporary writer.
one of the prominent Filipino fictionists in English.
known for innovating and exploring new literary forms
and experimenting with different techniques in short
story writing.
a member of the group “The Veronicans”, which was
composed of influential Filipino writers who aimed to
use sensible
literature in order to create a greater impact on the
Philippines.
 also the first director of the University of the Philippines
Creative Writing Center.
Some of his well-known literary works are the short
stories "The Man Who Would Be Poe," "Death in a
Factory," "A Clown Remembers," "The Mats," and "Lina."
was awarded as the National Artist for Literature in
1990.
his short stories "Flowers of May," "Christmas Gift," and
"The Mats," were adapted as screenplays.
 d. Who is N.V.M. Gonzalez (Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez)?
an award-winning Filipino poet, essayist, fictionist, journalist,
editor, and teacher of creative writing.
first president of the Philippine Writers’ Association.
honored as one of the great Filipino writers who advanced
literary traditions and culture.
a recipient of the following awards: The Republic Cultural
Heritage Award, the Jose Rizal Pro-Patria Award, the Carlos
Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, and the National Artist
Award for Literature in 1997.
 Some of his published works are Seven Hills
Away (1947), Children of the Ash-Covered Loam and
Other Stories (1954), and The Bamboo Dancers (1949),
which appeared in Russian translation in 1965 and 1974.
Seven Hills Away is a collection of short stories that
sketch the daily lives of the Filipino kaingeros in his
hometown province, Mindoro.
The Bamboo Dancers is a diasporic novel that features
the challenges faced by Filipinos in America.
 e. Who is Edith L. Tiempo?
a Filipino writer in English.
She was a poet, fiction writer, and literary critic.
known for using intricate and witty representations to portray
significant human experiences.
Some of her well known poems are "The Return," a poem that
describes the characteristics of old age, "Lament for the Littlest
Fellow," a poem that presents a metaphor to describe the plight
of a submissive wife under her domineering husband, and
"Bonsai," a poem that gives a look at how tangible objects could
be keepers of memories and emotions.
known for her moral profoundness.
One of her remarkable short stories, "The Black Monkey," won
third prize in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award.
is set during the time when guerrillas were fighting against the
Japanese during World War II, narrates the tormenting
encounter of a woman with a monkey.
wrote the novel A Blade of Fern, which depicts the problems of
Filipino miners of Nibucal in southern Philippines.
awarded as the National Artist for Literature in 1999.
She founded with her husband the Silliman University National
Writers Workshop, which produced great young writers of her
time.
 f. Who is F. Sionil Jose (Francisco Sionil Jose)?
widely known as F. Sionil Jose, was born on
December 3, 1924 in Rosales, Pangasinan.
his life and most of his works are influenced by Dr.
Jose P. Rizal.
edited various literary and journalistic
publications, and he founded the Philippine PEN,
an organization of poets, playwrights, and
novelists.
 opened Solidaridad Publishing House in 1965. A year
after, he founded Solidarity, a magazine that produces
content mainly focused on "current affairs, ideas, and the
arts."
was a recipient of numerous awards. Some of which are
the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature,
and Creative Communications in 1980, the Pablo Neruda
Centennial Award in 2004, and the Officer in the French
Order of Arts and Letters in 2014.
conferred as National Artist for Literature in 2001.
 Sionil Jose's Literary Works
generally written in English and are translated to
more than twenty languages and produced
worldwide.
among his most celebrated works is the Rosales
Saga. It is a series of novels that are set from the
Spanish colonial period to the proclamation of
Martial Law in the 1970s. This saga includes the
following novels: Po-on, Tree, The
Pretenders, Mass, and My Brother, My Executioner.
 written several short stories, including the notable:
"The God Stealer".
a story about the friendship of Philip Latak, an Ifugao, and Sam
Christie, an American who wanted to buy a bulol, a sculpture of
an Ifugao god. The story depicts the relationship and truths
about the colonizer and the colony.
Waywaya: Eleven Filipino Short Stories
a compilation of short stories about pre-Hispanic Philippine
society.
In 2004, he published the children’s book The Molave and
Other Children’s Stories.
 g. Who is Virgilio S. Almario?
popularly known by his pen name Rio Alma, is a Filipino
artist known for his poetry and literary criticism.
proclaimed National Artist for Literature in 2003.
Among his poetry collections are Makinasyon at Ilang
Tula (1968), his very first collection; Peregrinasyon at Iba
Pang Tula (1970), which won first prize in poetry in the
Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards; Doktrinang
Anakpawis (1979); Mga Retrato at Rekwerdo (1984);
and Muli Sa Kandungan ng Lupa (1994).
 Ang Makata sa Panahon ng Makina (1982),
now considered as the first book of literary
criticism in Filipino.
His other critical works include Taludtod at
Talinghaga (1965), which tackles the
traditional Tagalog prosody; and Balagtasismo
Versus Modernismo (1984), in which he
presents the two main directions of the
Tagalog Poetry
 founded the Galian sa Arte at Tula (GAT) with the other
poets Teo Antonio and Mike Bigornia in 1970; and the
Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA), an
organization of poets who write in Filipino, in 1985. From
1986 to 1992, he served as chairman of the Unyon ng
mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL), considered to be
the biggest umbrella organization of writers. From 1998
to 2001, he served as executive director of the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). -- In 2013
he became the chairman of the Komisyon ng Wikang
Filipino (KWF).
 h. Who is Alejandro R. Roces?
a Filipino literary writer.
born on July 13, 1924.
a playwright, an essayist, and a short
story writer.
also a columnist at the Philippine Star,
the Manila Times, and the Manila
Chronicle.
 known for his short story "We Filipinos Are Mild
Drinkers," a story about an American soldier in the
Philippines who brags about his drinking habits, but
becomes overly drunk after
drinking lambanog offered by a Filipino farmer.
From 1961 to 1965, he served as the Secretary of
Education under the regime of former president
Diosdado Macapagal.
served as chairman of the Movie and Television
Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) in 2001.
 His other literary works are "My Brother’s Peculiar
Chicken," a story which talks about two brothers who
were arguing whether the chicken they caught was a
hen or a rooster; Something to Crow About, the first
Filipino zarzuela in English about a man named Kiko
who earns a living by means of cockfighting;
and Fiesta, a collection of essays about various
Philippine festivals.
conferred as National Artist for Literature in 2003.
died on May 23, 2011.
i. Who is Bienvenido S. Lumbera?
called Beny when he was a young boy, was born in
Lipa, Batangas on April 11, 1932. His parents had
passed away before he turned five. Beny and his older
sister were raised by Eusebia Teru, their paternal
grandmother.When Eusebia died, Beny came to live
with his godparents, Enrique and Amanda Lumbera.
Beny showed natural aptitude for English.
 In sixth grade, his writing impressed his teacher so
much that she once asked him, in an accusatory tone, if
he did write his composition himself. In his third year in
high school, his teacher gave him difficult works of
literature to read.
A year before his graduation, his first published work,
the poem “Frigid Moon,” appeared in the Sunday
magazine of the Manila Chronicle. On a full scholarship
granted by the Fulbright Committee, Lumbera obtained
his masters and doctorate degrees at Indiana
University.
 a strong advocate of the Filipino
language. According to him, the gap
between the well-educated Filipinos and
the majority cannot be bridged until
Filipino becomes their true lingua franca.
received numerous awards for his work.
 Ramon Magsaysay Award for
Journalism, Literature, and Creative
Communication Arts in 1993, and
the Philippine Centennial Literary
Prize for Drama in 1998.
received the title of National Artist
for Literature in 2006.