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Francisco Arcellana
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Francisco "Franz" Arcellana (September 6, 1916 –

August 1, 2002) was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic,
journalist and teacher.

Francisco Arcellana

Born Francisco Arcellana[1]

September 6, 1916
Manila, Philippine Islands

Died August 1, 2002 (aged 85)

Quezon City, Philippines

Notable awards Order of National

Artists of the Philippines

Biography …

Francisco Arcellana was born on September 6, 1916. He

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 on August 1, 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 2005 dedicated to him.

Books

References

Last edited 4 months ago by Relinus

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