LITERARY MAP OF THE PHILIPPINES

Carlos Bulosan

Carlos Bulosan

Carlos Sampayan Bulosan was an English-language Filipino novelist and poet who immigrated to America on July 1, 1930. He never returned to the Philippines and he spent most of his life in the United States. His best-known work today is the semi-autobiographical "America is in the Heart", but he first gained fame for his 1943 essay on "The Freedom from Want."

Maximo D. Ramos

led a triple life as teacher, editor, and writer for over 45 years. Born on November 18, 1910 he was descended from the Dumlao and Ramos farming folk of Paoay, llocos Norte, who pioneered in Southern Zambales early in the 19th century. His first published work would subsequently be about folk beliefs in San Narciso, Zambales. In later work, he explored stories from his childhood in Boyhood in Monsoon Country.

He had a B.S.E. from the University of the Philippines (1934), an A.M. from Indiana University (1948) where he did course work under Stith Thompson, a TESL from the University of California (1963) where he profited from the tutelage of Wayland D. Hand, Director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology from 1961-1974. Ramos received his Ph.D. from the University of the Philippines (1965) for his seminal work The Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology.

Jose Corazon de Jesus

José Cecilio Corazón de Jesús, also known by his pen name Huseng Batute, was a Filipino poet who used Tagalog poetry to express the Filipinos' desire for independence during the American occupation of the Philippines, a period that lasted from 1901 to 1946. He is best known for being the lyricist of the Filipino song "Bayan Ko". His works appeared on several magazines and newspapers, notably Ang Democracia, Taliba, Liwayway, ang buhay sa nddu and Sampagita. In addition, his works have appeared in various anthologies and textbooks from grade school to college.

Alejandro G. Abadilla

commonly known as AGA, was a Filipino poet, essayist and fiction writer. Critic Pedro Ricarte referred to Abadilla as the father of modern Philippine poetry, and was known for challenging established forms and literature's "excessive romanticism and emphasis on rhyme and meter". Abadilla helped found the Kapisanang Panitikan in 1935 and edited a magazine called Panitikan. His "Ako ang Daigdig" collection of poems is one of his better known works.

Erlinda Kintanar Alburo

Erlinda Kintanar Alburo

is a prolific contemporary Cebuano language scholar and promoter of the language. She is the Director of the Cebuano Studies Center of the University of San Carlos, Philippines. She is an active member of Women in Literary Arts (WILA), and writes poetry both in English and cebuano. She teaches on the anthropology of linguistics. She wrote poems in Sinug-ang and Sugboanong balak.

Diosdado G. Alesna

Born in Carcar on May 18, 1909, Diosdado Alesna studied at the Carcar Institute, Cebu Provincial High School, University of the Visayas. He taught in the public schools; served in other civil positions and retired in 1972 as administrative officer of the Cebu District Engineer’s Office. He started writing in 1920. Alesna created the verse form, siniloy. His best poems are "Ang Gahum sa Awit," "Kalimti ug Biyai," and "Si Kristo sa Balabag," all LUDABI prize winners. He was honored in 1966 as LUDABI’s Most Outstanding Poet for the last ten years. His many pen names are: Diody Mangloy, Tancredo Rigor, Reynaldo Lap. Buntia, Melendres La Roca and Flordeliz Makaluluoy.

Cora Almerino

is a well known Cebuano Visayan writer. Her poems were included in Sinug-ang: A Cebuano trio published by Women in Literary Arts in 1999 together with Erlinda Alburo.

Francisco Alvarado

is a noted playwright of zarzuela in Lineyte-Samarnon (Waray). He was a member and literary luminary of the Sanghiran san Binisaya organization which was founded in 1909 to cultivate the Waray language. He has written poems such as:

• Panhayhay hin Bungtohanon, 1921, Hinagpis ng Isang Taga-Bayan
• An Marol, 1925, Ang Sampagita
• Kaadlawon, 1925, Araw
• Kagab-ihon, 1925, Gabi
• Nihaga, 1930
• Pilipinas, 1931

Manuel Roa y Chaves

was born in Cagayan de Misamis in 1889. He died at the age of 51 in 1940 and was buried at the request of the parish priest in the Catholic cemetery of Los Banos.

He was the head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of the Philippines, Los Banos. Other than composing poems,

He was a pianist and an accomplished organist. Even though he was a Protestant, when there was no organist around, he often played at the Los Banos Catholic Church. His wife, the former Francisca Avancena, and 10 children survived. He wrote the poem “Christmas Carol.”

Ricardo M. de Ungria

earned his A.B. Literature from the De La Salle University, and later obtained an M.F.A. in the Creative Arts from the Washington University in Missouri, U.S.A in 1990. He is a founding member of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC) and the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL). He has six poetry books, including R+A+D+I+O (1986), Decimal Places (1991), and the most recent, Pidgin Levitations (UP Press, 2004), a luxurious collection of the earlier work of the poet that is refreshingly unabashed. A number of anthologies have also been edited three of which are Passionate Patience: Ten Filipino Poets on the Writing of Their Poems (1995), Catfish Surviving in Little Schools (1996) and The Likhaan Anthology of Poetry and Fiction (1996). He wrote two poems, ‘Continuing Love’ and ‘A Kink of Burning’

Tita Lacambra-Ayala

An Ilocano by birth, Tita Lacambra-Ayala relocated to Davao

in the mid-50s, her writer’s engagement coming to include

school journalism and working for a pineapple-canning factory.

She broke through in 1960 with Sunflower Poems, a slim first

book of chipboard-printed poems. Critics noted her emotional

intensity, finding strength in her “deliberate diminution of scale

and scope.”

Norman “Noy” F. Narciso,

Norman “Noy” F. Narciso

a faculty member of the AdDU Languages, Literature, and Art Department. He’s an artist from the Philippine southern city of Davao, where he also teaches film, theatre and arts for the Humanities and Letters department of the Ateneo de Davao University. He was a member of the Committee on Visual Arts of the National Commission for Culture and Arts from 2004 to 2010. He wrote a poem named “Kape Mula sa Hapag”