Francisco Sionil Jose
Good afternoon! I am Francisco Sionil Jose
from Rosales Pangasinan. When I was in
grade school, my mother would work hard to
give me books to read. Some of the books I
have read was Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere. I
remember myself crying for Basilio and
Crispin’s situation. Injustice was not an alien
thing to me. My grandfather once showed me
the land of our family and it was taken by the
abusive mestizo landlords.
I attended the University of Santo Tomas,
however, I dropped out and decided to enter
writing and journalism in Manila. For the next
years, I edited various literary and journalistic
publications, started a publishing house, and
founded the Philippine branch of PEN, an
international organization for writers.
I am very much inspired by Jose Rizal and his
works that I integrated the themes and
characters from his novels in my work Rosales
Saga that has five volumes. Another popular
novel of mine is The Pretenders which is about
a man who detached himself from his poor
background and indulge himself in his wife’s
wealthy family.
Authors like myself choose the city as a setting
for their fiction because the city itself illustrates
the progress or the sophistication that a
particular country has achieved. Or, on the
other hand, it might also reflect the kind of
decay, both social and perhaps moral, that has
come upon a particular people.
Carlos P. Romulo
Good afternoon! I am Carlos P. Romulo from
Camiling, Tarlac. I was an educator, soldier,
university president, journalist and diplomat.
Although I entered different occupations, I am
very much into writing. I was an editor-in-chief
when I was in high school and college. I
worked as a publisher and editor in DMHM
Newspapers and the Philippines Herald.
I am very proud to say that I am the only Asian
to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for
a series of articles I wrote about the outbreak
of World War 2. Some of my works are The
United ( a novel) , I Worked with Heroes (an
autobiography) and I See the Fall of the
Philippines (war-time memoir).
Cirilo F. Bautista
Good afternoon! I am Cirilo F. Bautista from
Balic-Balic Sampaloc, Manila. I was a Filipino
critic, poet and writer. I received my degrees
Bachelor of Arts Literature from the UST,
Master of Arts Literature from St. Louis
University in Baguio City and Doctor of Arts in
Language and Literature from De La Salle
University Manila.
I want to encourage and influence my peers
and generation of young writers so as a way of
bringing poetry and fiction closer to the people,
I have held workshops throughout the country.
In my campus lecture circuits, I regularly
update the students and student-writers on
literary developments and techniques.
As a teacher of literature, I have realized that
the classroom is an important training ground
for Filipino writers. In De La Salle University, I
was one of the people who pushed the
formation of the Bienvenido Santos Creative
Writing Center.
Some of my works are : Trilogy of Saint
Lazarus, The House of the True Desire:
Essays about Life and Literature, Things
Happen: Poems 2012