Filipino Authors Biography

• Nick Joaquin, by name of Nicomedes

Joaquin, (born May 4, 1917, Paco,
Nick Joaquin
Manila, Philippines—died April 29,
2004, San Juan), Filipino novelist,
poet, playwright, essayist, and
biographer whose works present
the diverse heritage of the Filipino
people.

• Joaquin was awarded a scholarship to

the Dominican monastery in Hong
Kong after publication of his essay “La
Naval de Manila” (1943), a description
of Manila’s fabled resistance to 17th-
century Dutch invaders. After World
War II he travelled to the United
States, Mexico, and Spain, later
serving as a cultural representative of
the Philippines to Taiwan, Cuba,
and China.
• Starting as a proof-reader for the Philippines Free Press, Joaquin rose to contributing
editor and essayist under the nom de plume “Quijano de Manila” (“Manila Old-Timer”). He
was well known as a historian of the brief Golden Age of Spain in the Philippines, as a
writer of short stories suffused with folk Roman Catholicism, as a playwright, and as a
novelist. Joaquin wrote his works in English.
• The novel The Woman Who Had Two Navels (1961) examines his country’s various
heritages. A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1966), a celebrated play, attempts
to reconcile historical events with dynamic change. The Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay on
History as Three Generations (1983) presents a biography of Benigno Aquino, the
assassinated presidential candidate. The action of the novel Cave and Shadows (1983)
occurs in the period of martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. Joaquin’s other works
included the short-story collections Tropical Gothic (1972) and Stories for Groovy
Kids (1979), the play Tropical Baroque (1979), and the collections of poetry The Ballad of
the Five Battles (1981) and Collected Verse (1987).

• Died: April 29, 2004

• Notable works: A portrait of the artist as a Filipino, Cave and shadows, Culture and
History: Occasional notes on the process of Philippine becoming, La Navel de Manila.
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 16,
1916. Arcellana already had ambitions of
becoming a writer during his years in the
elementary. 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. He
later on received a Rockfeller Grant and
became a fellow in creative writing the
University of Iowa and Breadloaf's 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.
• 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. Francisco Arcellana
was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in Literature in 1990.
• Arcellana won 2nd place in 1951 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, with
his short story, "The Flowers of May." 14 of his short stories were also included in Jose
Garcia Villa's Honor Roll from 1928 to 1939.
• Arcellana died in 2002. As a National Artist, he received a state funeral at the Libingan ng
mga Bayani.
His grandson Liam Hertzsprung performed a piano concert in 2006 dedicated to him.
Arcellana's published books include:Selected Stories (1962)
• Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1977)
• The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990).
 Carlos Bulosan
• Carlos Sampayan Bulosan (November 24, 1913[1] –
September 11, 1956) was an English-
language Filipino novelist and poet who immigrated
to America on July 1, 1930.[2] He never returned to
the Philippines and he spent most of his life in the
United States. His best-known work today is
the semi-autobiographical America Is in the Heart but
he first gained fame for his 1943 essay on The
Freedom from Want.
• After arriving in Seattle from the Philippines in 1930,
Carlos Bulosan visited the city several times over the
years to work or see friends. He returned to Seattle
to stay in the early 1950s at the invitation of his
friends Ponce Torres and Chris Mensalvas, who he
knew from their years spent in labor organizing. Both
Torres and Mensalvas were officials in the cannery
workers union, Local 37, and for a time Bulosan
became the Publicity Director of the union. The
position caused some controversy, as Bulosan had
never worked in the canneries.
• In his years in Seattle, Bulosan battled alcoholism and was often homeless, staying
with Torres, Mensalvas, Patrick, or sleeping in the union hall. Despite the hardship,
he remained an active writer, with evidence suggesting he began several
manuscripts (now lost), including a novel based on Seattle’s Skid Road. In the hostile
political environment of the Cold War, however, Bulosan was understandably
introspective about his life and his years of activism, as seen in a reflective poem
from this period, “Landscape with a Bottle.”
• On September 11, 1956, Bulosan passed out in Seattle's City Hall Park following an
evening of drinking with a labor lawyer friend. He had recently received a Carnegie
Institute fellowship to focus on his writing, and was living in the Holland Hotel across
from the park. He died in the hospital from pneumonia that evening. He was only in
his mid-40s. After a memorial in the Local 37 union hall, Bulosan was buried in
Mount Pleasant cemetery in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.
• Bulosan’s works include poetry collections, Letter from America (1942), Chorus from
America (1942), and The Voice of Bataan (1943), as well as the novels The Cry and
the Dedication (written in the 1950s and published posthumously in 1995) and The
Sound of Falling Light (1960).
 • Born in Tondo, Manila, of Pampango parents from
Lubao, Bienvenido N. Santos was a government
Bienvenido N. Santos pensionado to the United States in 1941. During
the war years he studied at the University of
Illinois, Columbia, and Harvard and served with
the Philippine government in exile in Washington,
D.C.
• In 1946 he returned to the Philippines, taught
school and became a university administrator. In
1958 he was a Rockefeller Foundation fellow at the
Writers Workshop in the University of Iowa where
he later taught as a Fulbright exchange professor.
He has received a Guggenheim Foundation
fellowship and a Republic Cultural Heritage Award
in Literature.
• In 1981, his alma mater, the University of the
Philippines, and Bicol University in Legazpi City
gave him honorary degrees in Letters and
Humanities. He was a Distinguished Writer in
Residence at the Wichita State University from
1973 to 1982, and was awarded an honorary
degree in humane letters upon his retirement.
• In late 1986 to 1987, he was a Visiting Writer and
Artist at De La Salle University.
• His works include the following:
• Short fiction collections
• Novels
• Dwell in the Wilderness
• The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert • Scent of Apples
Taylor
• The Day the Dancers Came
• Brother My Brother • You Lovely People
• The Praying Man • Awards, honors and prizes
• The Volcano • Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at
the University of Iowa
• Villa Magdalena
• Guggenheim Fellowship
• What the Hell For You Left Your Heart in San • Republic Cultural Heritage Award
Francisco
• Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for short fiction
• Novels (1956, 1961 and 1965)
• The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert • Fulbright Program Exchange Professorship
Taylor • American Book Award from Before Columbus
Foundation
• Brother My Brother
• Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and
• The Praying Man Letters, University of the Philippines
• The Volcano • Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and
Letters, Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay,
Philippines)
• Villa Magdalena
• Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, Wichita
• What the Hell For You Left Your Heart in San State University (Kansas, U.S.)
Francisco
 • Leoncio P. Deriada was born in Iloilo but spent most
of his life in Davao. He went to school at the Davao

Leoncio P. Deriada City High School and graduated in 1955. He earned

his BA English degree at the Ateneo de Davao
University where he graduated cum laude in 1959.
He later received his MA in English from Xavier
University in 1970 and went on to receive his PhD in
English and Literature with a specialization in
creative writing from Silliman University in 1981
where he later on served as professor and
chairperson of the English Department.

He is a multi-lingual writer having produced works in

English, Filipino, Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a and Cebuano.
His thirteen Palanca awards include works in
English, Filipino and Hiligaynon. Of these thirteen,
five are first-prize winners, and these include "The
Day of the Locusts" (Short Story, 1975), "Mutya ng
Saging" (Dulaang May Isang Yugto, 1987), "The Man
Who Hated Birds" (Short Story for Children, 1993),
"Medea of Siquijor" (One-Act Play, 1999), and
"Maragtas: How Kapinangan Tricked Sumakwel
Twice" (Full-Length Play, 2001). He became a
Palanca Hall of Famer on September 1, 2001.
• Aside from his Palanca awards, he has garnered other prestigious awards such as the Gawad
Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, Asiaweek, Gawad CCP, Graphic, Focus, Yuhum (Iloilo), and
Blue Knight Award from Ateneo de Davao for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. In
2002, he was one of Metrobank's Outstanding Teachers.
• He is currently a professor at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas - Iloilo. Dr.
Deriada heads the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino at the U.P. Visayas. He is also an associate of the
U.P. Institute of Creative Writing.
• Leoncio P. Deriada is generally recognized as the "Father of Contemporary Literature in
Western Visayas." This paper is about his life as a writer and teacher, and his contribution in
promoting and developing literature in Region 6 of the Philippine archipelago from the mid-
90s to the present by giving workshops and by editing anthologies, especially writing in
Kinaray-a and Aklanon. The forces that created Deriada as a "literary engineer" are also
explained. Although the main locus of Deriada's efforts is the Western Visayas region of the
Philippines, his sensibilities as a writer and cultural worker is truly national.