Folders Notes

Francisco Arcellana

...

Save

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.[2][3]

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.[4]

In 2009, or seven years after his death, his family came out with a book to pay tribute to National Artist
for Literature Arcellana. The book entitled Franz is a collection of essays gathered by the Arcellana
family from colleagues, friends, students and family members, including fellow National Artist Nick
Joaquin, Butch Dalisay, Recah Trinidad, Jing Hidalgo, Gemino Abad, Romina Gonzalez, Edwin Cordevilla,
Divina Aromin, Doreen Yu, Danton Remoto, Jose Esteban Arcellana and others.[5]
Arcellana is buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Arcellana died in 200000. As a National Artist, he received a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

His grandson Liam Hertzsprung performed a piano concert in 2005 dedicated to him.

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).

Read more: Francisco Arcellana | Revolvy https://www.revolvy.com/page/Francisco-Arcellana?

smv=624314#ixzz635Hmj06B

Follow us: @RevolvyEarth on Twitter | RevolvyEarth on Facebook

Jose Garcia Villa was the first Filipino National Artist for literature, an award-winning poet here in
Philippines and in United States. He is known for his "reverse consonance" style in poetry such as "said"
and "days". He is also popular in his style for "comma poems" with every word with commas making the
reader pause for every word, slowing the pace of poem resulting to what Villa called "a lineal dignity of
pace and movement".

Jose Garcia Villa is the son of personal doctor of Emilio Aguinaldo, Simeon Villa. He was born on August
5, 1908 in Singalong , Manila. He enrolled in school of Medicine, shifted to Law school, but realized his
passion is arts. He start in painting but later focus in creative writing after reading Winesburg, Ohio by
Sherwood Anderson.
In 1929, he published an erotic series of poems called "Man Songs" which tend UP Administrators to
suspend him from the University and even fined of seventy pesos for "obscenity" by the Court of First
Instance. During that time he won P1,000 from the Philippine Free Press or his "Mir-i-Nisa" which he
used to migrate to United States. He enrolled at the University of New Mexico and finished Bachelor of
Arts Degree. In 1942, after the released of "Have Come Am Here", he introduced his "reversed
consonance" rhyming scheme and in 1949, he introduced his comma poems.

Villa's major works are Philippine Short Stories in 1928 (best 25 short stories, 1929), Footnote to Youth
(short stories,1933), Many Voices (poems, 1939), Have Come Am Here (poems,1941), Selected Poems
and New (1942), and A Doveglion Book of Philippine Poetry (1962).

Villa's awards includes Guggenheim Fellowship, Academy Award for Literature from The American
Academy of Arts and Letter on 1943, First Prize in Poetry Category in UP Golden Jubilee Literary Contests
on 1958, Pro Patria Award in Literature and Heritage Award for Poetry and Short Stories on 1961,
Honoraris Causa doctorate degree for Literature in FEU on 1959 and the prestigious National Artist
Award for Literature on 1973.

Here is a sample of Villa's work, an excerpt from "Have Come Am Here" lyrics (1942):

In my desire to be Nude

I clothed myself in fire:–

Burned down my walls, my roof,

Burned all these down.

Emerged myself Supremely lean

Unsheathed like a holy knife.

With only His Hand to find

To hold me beyond annul.

And found Him found Him found Him

 Found the Hand to hold me up!

He held me like a burning poem

And waved me all over the world.

Next is "The Anchored Angel" with style using commas:

And, lay, he, down, the, golden, father,

(Genesis', fist, all, gentle, now)

Between, the, wall, of, China, and,

The, tiger, tree, (his, centuries, his,

Aerials, of, light) —

Anchored, entire, angel!

He, in, his, estate, miracle, and, living, dew,

His, fuses, gold, his, cobalts, love,

And, in, his, eyepits,

under, the, liontelling, sun —

The, zeta, truth — the, swift, red, Christ.

The, red-thighed, distancer, swift, saint,

Who, made, the, flower, principle,

The, sun, the, hermit's, seizures,

And, all, the, saults, zigzags, and,

Sanskrit, of, love.

Verb-verb, noun-noun:

Light's, latticer, the, angel, in, the, spiderweb:

By, whose, espials, from, the, silk, sky,

From, his, spiritual, ropes,

With, fatherest, fingers, lets, down,

Manfathers, the, gold, declension, of, the, soul.

Crown, Christ's, kindle, Christ! Or, any, he,

Who, builds, his, staircase, fire —

And, lays, his, bones, in, ascending,

Fever. Verb-verb, king's, spike — who, propels,

In, riddles! Six-turbined,

Deadlock, prince. And, noun,

Of, all, nouns: inventor, of, great, eyes: seesawing,

Genesis — unfissured, spy: His, own, Arabian,

his, love-flecked, eye!

The, ball, of, birth, the, selfwit, bud,

So, birthright, lanced, I, hurl, my, bloodbeat, Light.

And, watch, again, Genesis', phosphor, as,

Blood, admires, a, man. Lightstruck,

Lightstruck, into, the, mastertask,

No, hideout, fox, he, wheels, his, grave, of,

Burning, and, threads, his,

Triggers, into, flower: laired,

In, the, light's, black, branches: the, food, of,

Light, and, light's, own, rocking, milk.

But, so, soon, a, prince,

so, soon, a, homecoming, love,

Nativity, climbs, him, by, the, Word's, three, kings.

— Or, there, ahead, of, love, vault, back

And, sew, the, sky, where, it, cracked!

And, rared, in, the, Christfor, night,

Lie, down, sweet, by, the, betrayer, tree,

To-fro, angel! Hiving, verb!

First, lover, and, last, lover, grammatiq:

Where, rise, the, equitable, stars, the, roses, of, the, Zodiac,

And, rear, the, eucalypt, towns, of, love:

— Anchored, Entire, Angel:

Through, whose, huge, discalced, arable, love,

Bloodblazes, oh, Christ's, gentle, egg: His, terrific, sperm.