FRANCISCO ARCELLANA
“Franz” whos whole name
is Zacarias Eugene Francisco Quino Arcellana he was born in march 22 1991. He was a poet, writer,
essayist , critic , journalist and a teacher. He is fourth of eighteen children.
His parents are Jose Arcellana y Cabaniero and Epifanio Quino. He was married
to Emerencaina Arcellana.
In 1932 Arcellana entered the University of the
Philippines (UP) as a pre-medicine student and graduated in 1939 with a
bachelor of philosophy in degree. In his junior year, mainly because of the
publication of his “trilogy of the turtles” in the Literary Apprentice,
Arcellana was invited to join the UP Writers Club by Manuel Arguilla – who at
that time was already a campus literary figure. In 1934, he edited and
published Expression, a quarterly of experimental writing. It caught the
attention of Jose Garcia Villa who started a correspondence with Arcellana. It
also spawned the Veronicans, a group of 13 pre-WWII who rebelled against
traditional forms and themes in Philippine literature.
Arcellana went on to medical school after receiving his bachelor's degree while holding jobs in Herald Midweek Magazine, where his weekly column “Art and Life” (later retitled “Life and Letters”) appeared, and in Philcross, the publication of the Philippine Red Cross. The war stopped his schooling. After the war, he continued working in media and publishing and began a career in the academe. He was manager of the International News Service and the editor of This Week. He joined the UP Department of English and Comparative Literature and served as adviser of the Philippine Collegian and director of the UP Creative Writing Center, 1979- 1982. Under a Rockefeller Foundation grant he became a fellow in creative writing, 1956- 1957, at the University of Iowa and Breadloaf Writers' Conference.
In 1932 Arcellana published his first story. “The Man Who Could Be Poe” in Graphic while still a student at Torres High School. The following year two of his short stories, “Death is a Factory” and “Lina,” were included in Jose Garcia Villa's honor roll. During the 1930's, which he calls his most productive period, he wrote his most significant stories including, “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal” cited in 1938 by Villa as the year's best. He also began writing poetry at this time, many of them appearing in Philippine Collegian, Graphic and Herald Midweek Magazine.
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.
Arcellana went on to medical school after receiving his bachelor's degree while holding jobs in Herald Midweek Magazine, where his weekly column “Art and Life” (later retitled “Life and Letters”) appeared, and in Philcross, the publication of the Philippine Red Cross. The war stopped his schooling. After the war, he continued working in media and publishing and began a career in the academe. He was manager of the International News Service and the editor of This Week. He joined the UP Department of English and Comparative Literature and served as adviser of the Philippine Collegian and director of the UP Creative Writing Center, 1979- 1982. Under a Rockefeller Foundation grant he became a fellow in creative writing, 1956- 1957, at the University of Iowa and Breadloaf Writers' Conference.
In 1932 Arcellana published his first story. “The Man Who Could Be Poe” in Graphic while still a student at Torres High School. The following year two of his short stories, “Death is a Factory” and “Lina,” were included in Jose Garcia Villa's honor roll. During the 1930's, which he calls his most productive period, he wrote his most significant stories including, “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal” cited in 1938 by Villa as the year's best. He also began writing poetry at this time, many of them appearing in Philippine Collegian, Graphic and Herald Midweek Magazine.
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.
