The Great Philippine National Artists

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Francisco Sionil José’s novels, short stories and non-fiction works highlight the social underpinnings, class struggles and colonial history of Filipino society.

He is best known for his epic work, The Rosales Saga – five novels encompassing a hundred years of Philippine history, painting a vivid documentary of Filipino life.

Know more about him and rediscover his works on his blog:

Welcome Welcome to the official blog and website of F. Sionil Jose

For experiences that we've dwelled from life shapes the literature within us.

Through his critical essays on ten key figures in Philippine history, Nick Joaquin provides a fresh point of view on Philippine heroes and their role in the Philippine revolutionary tradition.

Interesting reaction upon reading the said book. Read it here:

http://www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2012/12/a-question-of-heroes-question-of.html

Great words from one of our Great Artists

Carlos Peña Romulo once wrote that each of his careers “might have been lived in a different country and a different age.” Soldier, journalist, educator, author, and diplomat, he was a definitive world figure of the 20th century.

Another Amado Hernandez literary piece "Mga Ibong Mandaragit"

Mga Ibong Mandaragit, hailed as Hernandez's masterpiece, focuses on the neocolonial dependency and revolt in the Philippines. The novel reflects Hernandez's experience as a guerrilla intelligence officer when the Philippines was under Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945

About:
The narrative, illustrates Hernandez's yearning for change and the elevation of the status of Philippine society and living conditions of Filipinos. The setting is in the middle of 1944, when the armed forces of the Japanese Empire were losing.

The novel acts as a sequel to Jose Rizal's historic Noli Me Tangere and El filibusterismo. The protagonist Mando Plaridel is tested by Tata Matyas, an old revolutionary, on his knowledge about Rizal and Rizal's novels. Similar to Rizal's novel, the main character examines the Philippines as an outsider while traveling in Europe. Hernandez's novel also tackles the lead character's search for Simoun's treasure, acting as a continuation of Rizal's El Filibusterismo. The novel portrays the conditions of the citizenry at the onset of industrialization brought forth by the Americans in the Philippines. Mga Ibong Mandaragit had been translated into English and Russian.

An Amado Hernandez work "Langaw sa isang basong Gatas"

About:
"Ang kalipunang ito ng mga kwento ni Amado V. Hernandez," sabi ni Bienvenido Lumbera, "ay pinakahihintay sa larangan ng pagsusulat ng mga kabataang awtor na nangungulila ngayon sa matibay na gabay ng isang kwentistang kakatawan sa manlilikhang hindi lamang makasining kundi, lalo't higit, makabayan at palaban. Sa mga nakasaksi sa panahon ng pagbabangon sa nasyonalismo sa hanay ng kabataan noonhg mga huling taon ng 1960, parang kasaysayang umuulit ang kasalukuyan.

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.

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.