Looking Back: A blog on National Artists of the Philippines for Literature

 

Francisco Arcellana

Francisco "Franz" Arcellana (September 6, 1916 – August 1, 2002) was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher. He was born on September 6, 1916. Arcellana already had ambitions of becoming a writer early in his childhood. His actual writing, however, started when he became a member of The Torres Torch Organization during his high school years. Arcellana continued writing in various school papers at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Later on he received a Rockefeller Grant and became a fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa and at the Breadloaf Writers' Conference from 1956– 1957.
He is considered an important progenitor of the modern Filipino short story in English. Arcellana pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form within Filipino literature. His works are now often taught in tertiary-level syllabi in the Philippines. Many of his works were translated into Tagalog, Malaysian, Russian, Italian, and German. Arcellana won 2nd place in the 1951 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, with his short story, The Flowers of May. Fourteen of his short stories were also included in Jose Garcia Villa's Honor Roll from 1928 to 1939. His major achievements included the first award in art criticism from the Art Association of the Philippines in 1954, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award from the city government of Manila in 1981, and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for English fiction from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipino (UMPIL) in 1988.
The University of the Philippines conferred upon Arcellana a doctorate in humane letters, honoris causa in 1989. Francisco Arcellana was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in Literature on June 23, 1990 by then Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino.

Arcellana's published books include:

• Selected Stories (1963)
• Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1979)
• The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1991).

Edith L. Tiempo

Edith L. Tiempo (April 22, 1919 – August 21, 2011),poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic was a Filipino writer in the English language.
Tiempo was born in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya.Her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized pieces, "Halaman" and "Bonsai."As fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound. Her language has been marked as "descriptive but unburdened by scrupulous detailing." She is an influential tradition in Philippine Literature in English. Together with her late husband, writer and critic Edilberto K. Tiempo, they founded (in 1962) and directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the Philippines' best writers.
She was conferred the National Artist Award for Literature in 1999.

Born on April 22, 1919 in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, her poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of significant experiences as revealed, in two of her much anthologized pieces, “The Little Marmoset” and “Bonsai”. 

Bienvenido Lumbera

Lumbera was born in Lipa on April 11, 1932.[1] He was barely a year old when his father, Christian Lumbera (a Shooting Guard with a local basketball team), fell from a fruit tree, broke his back, and died. Carmen Lumbera, his mother, suffered from cancer and died a few years later. By the age of five he was an orphan. He and his older sister were cared for by their paternal grandmother, Eusebia Teru.

When the war ended, Lumbera and his grandmother returned to their home in Lipa. Eusebia, however, soon succumbed to old age and he was once again orphaned. For his new guardians, he was asked to choose between his maiden aunts with whom his sister had stayed or Enrique and Amanda Lumbera, his godparents. The latter had no children of their own and Bienvenido, who was barely fourteen at the time, says he chose them mainly because "they could send me to school."

At the height of Martial Law, Lumbera had taken on other creative projects. He began writing librettos for musical theater. Initially, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) requested him to create a musical based on Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart. Eventually, Lumbera created several highly acclaimed musical dramas such as Tales of the Manuvu; Rama, Hari; Nasa Puso ang Amerika; Bayani; Noli me Tangere: The Musical; and Hibik at Himagsik Nina Victoria Laktaw. Sa Sariling Bayan: Apat na Dulang May Musika, an anthology of Lumbera's musical dramas, was published by De La Salle University-Manila Press in 2004. Lumbera authored numerous books, anthologies and textbooks such as: Revaluation; Pedagogy; Philippine Literature: A History and Anthology; Rediscovery: Essays in Philippine Life and Culture; Filipinos Writing: Philippine Literature from the Regions; and Paano Magbasa ng Panitikang Filipino: Mga Babasahing Pangkolehiyo.

Lumbera created several highly acclaimed musical dramas such as Tales of the Manuvu; Rama, Hari; Nasa Puso ang Amerika; Bayani; Noli me Tangere: The Musical; and Hibik at Himagsik Nina Victoria Laktaw.

N.V.M. Gonzalez

Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez, better known as N.V.M. Gonzalez, fictionist, essayist, poet, and teacher, articulated the Filipino spirit in rural, urban landscapes. Among the many recognitions, he won the First Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1940, received the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1960 and the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining in 1990. The awards attest to his triumph in appropriating the English language to express, reflect and shape Philippine culture and Philippine sensibility. He became U.P.’s International-Writer-In-Residence and a member of the Board of Advisers of the U.P. Creative Writing Center. In 1987, U.P. conferred on him the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, its highest academic recognition.

Major works of N.V.M Gonzalez include the following: The Winds of April, Seven Hills Away, Children of the Ash-Covered Loam and Other Stories, The Bamboo Dancers, Look Stranger, on this Island Now, Mindoro and Beyond: Twenty -One Stories, The Bread of Salt and Other Stories, Work on the Mountain, The Novel of Justice: Selected Essays 1968-1994, A Grammar of Dreams and Other Stories.

Virgilio S. Almario

Virgilio S. Almario, also known as Rio Alma, is a poet, literary historian and critic, who has revived and reinvented traditional Filipino poetic forms, even as he championed modernist poetics. In 34 years, he has published 12 books of poetry, which include the seminal Makinasyon and Peregrinasyon, and the landmark trilogy Doktrinang Anakpawis, Mga Retrato at Rekwerdo and Muli, Sa Kandungan ng Lupa. In these works, his poetic voice soared from the lyrical to the satirical to the epic, from the dramatic to the incantatory, in his often severe examination of the self, and the society.

He has also redefined how the Filipino poetry is viewed and paved the way for the discussion of the same in his 10 books of criticisms and anthologies, among which are Ang Makata sa Panahon ng Makina, Balagtasismo versus Modernismo,Walong Dekada ng Makabagong Tula Pilipino, Mutyang Dilim and Barlaan at Josaphat.

Many Filipino writers have come under his wing in the literary workshops he founded –the Galian sa Arte at Tula (GAT) and the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA). He has also long been involved with children’s literature through the Aklat Adarna series, published by his Children’s Communication Center. He has been a constant presence as well in national writing workshops and galvanizes member writers as chairman emeritus of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL).

He headed the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as Executive Director, (from 1998 to 2001) ably steering the Commission towards its goals.

But more than anything else, what Almario accomplished was that he put a face to the Filipino writer in the country, one strong face determinedly wielding a pen into untruths, hypocrisy, injustice, among others.

Cirilo F. Bautista

Cirilo F. Bautista is a poet, fictionist and essayist with exceptional achievements and significant contributions to the development of the country’s literary arts. He is acknowledged by peers and critics, and the nation at large as the foremost writer of his generation.

Throughout his career that spans more than four decades, he has established a reputation for fine and profound artistry; his books, lectures, poetry readings and creative writing workshops continue to influence his peers and generations of young writers.

As a way of bringing poetry and fiction closer to the people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to develop their creative talent, Bautista has been holding regular funded and unfunded workshops throughout the country. In his campus lecture circuits, Bautista has updated students and student-writers on literary developments and techniques.

As a teacher of literature, Bautista has realized that the classroom is an important training ground for Filipino writers. In De La Salle University, he was instrumental in the formation of the Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center. He was also the moving spirit behind the founding of the Philippine Literary Arts Council in 1981, the Iligan National Writers Workshop in 1993, and the Baguio Writers Group.

Thus, Bautista continues to contribute to the development of Philippine literature: as a writer, through his significant body of works; as a teacher, through his discovery and encouragement of young writers in workshops and lectures; and as a critic, through his essays that provide insights into the craft of writing and correctives to misconceptions about art.

Major works: Summer Suns (1963), Words and Battlefields (1998), The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus (2001), Galaw ng Asoge (2003).

Nick Joaquin

“Before 1521 we could have been anything and everything not Filipino; after 1565 we can be nothing but Filipino.” ― Culture and History, 1988

Nick Joaquin, is regarded by many as the most distinguished Filipino writer in English writing so variedly and so well about so many aspects of the Filipino. Nick Joaquin has also enriched the English language with critics coining “Joaquinesque” to describe his baroque Spanish-flavored English or his reinventions of English based on Filipinisms. Aside from his handling of language, Bienvenido Lumbera writes that Nick Joaquin’s significance in Philippine literature involves his exploration of the Philippine colonial past under Spain and his probing into the psychology of social changes as seen by the young, as exemplified in stories such as Doña Jeronima, Candido’s Apocalypse and The Order of Melchizedek. Nick Joaquin has written plays, novels, poems, short stories and essays including reportage and journalism. As a journalist, Nick Joaquin uses the nome de guerre Quijano de Manila but whether he is writing literature or journalism, fellow National Artist Francisco Arcellana opines that “it is always of the highest skill and quality”.

Among his voluminous works are The Woman Who Had Two Navels, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, Manila, My Manila: A History for the Young, The Ballad of the Five Battles, Rizal in Saga, Almanac for Manileños, Cave and Shadows.

Nick Joaquin died April 29, 2004.

Amado V. Hernandez

Amado V. Hernandez, poet, playwright, and novelist, is among the Filipino writers who practiced “committed art”. In his view, the function of the writer is to act as the conscience of society and to affirm the greatness of the human spirit in the face of inequity and oppression. Hernandez’s contribution to the development of Tagalog prose is considerable — he stripped Tagalog of its ornate character and wrote in prose closer to the colloquial than the “official” style permitted. His novel Mga Ibong Mandaragit, first written by Hernandez while in prison, is the first Filipino socio-political novel that exposes the ills of the society as evident in the agrarian problems of the 50s.

Hernandez’s other works include Bayang Malaya, Isang Dipang Langit, Luha ng Buwaya, Amado V. Hernandez: Tudla at Tudling: Katipunan ng mga Nalathalang Tula 1921-1970, Langaw sa Isang Basong Gatas at Iba Pang Kuwento ni Amado V. Hernandez, Magkabilang Mukha ng Isang Bagol at Iba Pang Akda ni Amado V. Hernandez.