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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.
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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
AWARDS/HONORS/DISTINCTIONS • First Prize – Epic Writing of National Centennial Commissions Literary Contests • 5 time National book award • GintongAklat Award • Hall of Fame – from Palanca Awards Foundation • 9 time Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award • GawadBalagtas– from UnyonngManunulatngPilipinas • MakatangTaon1993 • 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
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 PaanoMatatamoAngKatahimikan 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!