Biography

• Born in 1941• a multi-awarded Filipino poet• fictionist• critic• writer of nonfiction

Educational Background

• (1963; Magna Cum Laude) AB Literature from the University of Santo Tomas.

• (1968; Magna Cum Laude) MA Literature from St. Louis University, Baguio City.

• (1990) Doctor of Arts in Language and Literature from De La Salle University-Manila

• (1968-1969; Honorary Degree) Attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa

Work Experience

• taught creative writing and literature– (1963-1968) St. Louis University– (1969-1970) University of Santo Tomas– (1970-2005) De La Salle University-Manila

• A columnist and literary editor of the Philippine Panorama, the Sunday Supplement of the Manila Bulletin

Work Experience

• Co-founding member of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC)

• Member of the Manila Critics Circle, Philippine Center of International PEN and the Philippine Writers Academy.

• Senior Associate of the Center for Creative Writing and Studies of the University of Santo Tomas

• Member of Advisers and Associate of Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center of De La Salle University

• First Prize – Epic Writing of National Centennial Commissions Literary Contests

• 5 time National book award• Gintong Aklat Award • Hall of Fame – from Palanca Awards Foundation• 9 time Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award• Gawad Balagtas – from Unyon ng Manunulat ng Pilipinas• Makata ng Taon 1993• Adopted Son of Iligan City 1997 – for contribution in

development of creative writing in Mindanao.• Gawad Manuel L. Quezon 1996 – from Quezon City

Government

AWARDS/HONORS/DISTINCTIONS

• St. Miguel Febres Cordero Research Award SY2002-03 – from DLSU (creative writing)

• First Annual Dove Award (for energizing the writing life in campus) – from DLSU

• Most Outstanding Achievement Award in Literature 1996 – from Philets-Artlets Centennial Alumni Association of UST

• Most Outstanding Alumnus Award for Literature – from Mapa high School Alumni association 1983 and Graduate School Saint Louis University 1975

• Excellence Award – for his novel Reconstruction 1982• Fernando Ma. Guerrero Award for Literature – from UST

AWARDS/HONORS/DISTINCTIONS

• Visiting Writer in Trinity College, Cambridge University 1987 – first Filipino writer to be invited

• Seminar on Contemporary Literature – through the british council

• Honorary Fellow in Creative Writing – from State University of Iowa, USA 1969

AWARDS/HONORS/DISTINCTIONS

Interviews with Cirilo• “you can invent historical fact and say this is

poetry anyway, so I invent these events”• “I am writing not about the history of this

people but the development of their soul”• “you can get some idea about the poem by

reading it, but the true test of a poem is in hearing”

• Used to write in Tagalog in 1960s but shifted to English because of pressure

Interviews with Cirilo• “The poem is a social artifact.”• “He creates the poem from his social

background, and by that I mean economic, ecological, ideological, politics, and so on, all the factors that make him a social animal.”

• “seeing things beyond their literal surface, that’s poetic”

Writing Style• Says what everyone feels• Analogous to life• “Poems are written about the most ordinary

things that happen in the most ordinary way – as seen in a extraordinary manner.”

Themes

• Politics• Government• Activism• Voice of the people

Major Works

• Kung Paano Matatamo Ang Katahimikan Sa Mundo • Charts • Pedagogic • The Sea Cannot Touch • A Man Falls to His Death • Walking Around in Brussels • Dead Weight: In Memoriam• Excerpt from Telex Moon (Part Three)• The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus• Excerpt from Sunlight on Broken Stones

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• Dead weight – Oppressive burden– Difficulty

• In Memoriam– Ferdinand Marcos

• For Marcos administration

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• A death that stuns the wheels of governmentAnd carves enmity in the hearts of men—How do we sing the darkness in this thing?There is a need to fix our voice against

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• The weight of our loss, so that all in all,As we polish the weapons to blast the threatOf his ghost, our discourse does not discloseOur kinship with his blood, but from monstrous

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• Corners of memory bring out poisonedPhrases to fling at his flesh—“Thief,” “Scoundrel,”“Usurper of heritage”—those terribleMaledictions he finely deserves, so much

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• Did he trick us in his long governance.We will yield no quarter in this noble fightTo cleanse history of his stench! Let him rotAbroad, let his brood burn in our anger’s heat,

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• Let us persecute his friends—those blind lackeysWho still lick his prints! An eye for an eye. . .Bah! He started it all, and the law upholdsThe virtue of our violence. Let us then

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• Be firm: our vision of one happy nationFounded on Faith, Honor and Justice must notBe shaken by this abominableCarcass or the pleadings of his clan—lock

Dead Weight: In Memoriam

• The waterways, patrol the air, check the land—He Must Not Come Home, He Must Not Rest in Peace!