author

       Jose Garcia Villa 

        (August 5, 1908 – February 7, 1997) was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973,^[1] as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken.^[2]He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rime scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet.^[3] He used the penname Doveglion (derived from "Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based on the characters he derived from himself. These animals were also explored by another poet e.e. cummings in Doveglion, Adventures in Value, a poem dedicated to Villa.^[1]

     

Writing career

Villa was considered the leader of Filipino "artsakists", a group of writers who believe that art should be "for art's sake" hence the term. He once pronounced that "art is never a means; it is an end in itself."Jose Garcia Villa - Finest Filipino Poet in English.Villa's tart poetic style was considered too aggressive at that time. In 1929 he published Man Songs, a series of erotic poems, which the administrators in UP found too bold and was even fined Philippine peso for obscenity by the Manila Court of First Instance. In that same year, Villa won Best Story of the Year from Philippine Free Press magazine for Mir-I-Nisa. He also received P1,000,000 prize money, which he used to migrate for the United States.

He enrolled at the University of New Mexico, wherein he was one of the founders of Clay, a mimeograph literary magazine.He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and pursued post-graduate work at Columbia University.Villa had gradually caught the attention of the country's literary circles, one of the few Asians to do so at that time.

After the publication of Footnote to Youth in 1933, Villa switched from writing prose to poetry, and published only a handful of works until 1942. During the release of Have Come, Am Here in 1942, he introduced a new rhyming scheme called "reversed consonance" wherein, according to Villa: "The last sounded consonants of the last syllable, or the last principal consonant of a word, are reversed for the corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme for near would be run; or rain, green, reign."

In 1949, Villa presented a poetic style he called "comma poems", wherein commas are placed after every word. In the preface of Volume Two, he wrote: "The commas are an integral and essential part of the medium: regulating the poem's verbal density and time movement: enabling each word to attain a fuller tonal value, and the line movement to become more measures."

Villa worked as an associate editor for New Directions Publishing in New York City between 1949 to 1951, and then became director of poetry workshop at City College of New York from 1952 to 1960. He then left the literary scene and concentrated on teaching, first lecturing in The New School|The New School for Social Research from 1964 to 1973, as well as conducting poetry workshops in his apartment. Villa was also a cultural attaché to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 1952 to 1963, and an adviser on cultural affairs to the President of the Philippines beginning 1968.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Garcia_Villa\

Paz Márquez-Benítez

Paz Márquez-Benítez (1894–1983) was a Filipina short-story writer.

Born in 1894 in Lucena City, Quezon, Marquez - Benítez authored the first Filipino modern English-language short story, Dead Stars, published in the Philippine Herald in 1925. Born into the prominent Marquez family of Quezon province, she was among the first generation ofFilipinos trained in the American education system which used English as the medium of instruction. She graduated high school in Tayabas High School (now, Quezon National High School) and college from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.^[1][2] She was a member of the first freshman class of the University of the Philippines, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.

Two years after graduation, she married UP College of Education Dean Francisco Benítez, with whom she had four children.

Márquez-Benítez later became a teacher at the University of the Philippines, who taught short-story writing and had become an influential figure to many Filipino writers in the English language, such as Loreto Paras-Sulit, Paz M. Latorena, Arturo Belleza Rotor, Bienvenido N. Santos and Francisco Arcellana. The annually held Paz Marquez-Benitez Lectures in thePhilippines honors her memory by focusing on the contribution of Filipino women writers to Philippine Literature in the English language.^[1][2]

Though she only had one more published short story after “Dead Stars” entitled "A Night In The Hills", she made her mark in Philippine literature because her work is considered the first modern Philippine short story.^[1][2]

For Marquez-Benitez, writing was a life-long occupation. In 1919 she founded "Woman's Home Journal", the first women's magazine in the country. Also in the same year, she and other six women who were prominent members of Manila's social elites, namely Clara Aragon, Concepcion Aragon, Francisca Tirona Benitez, Carolina Ocampo Palma, Mercedes Rivera, and Socorro Marquez Zaballero, founded the Philippine Women's College (now Philippine Women's University). "Filipino Love Stories", reportedly the first anthology of Philippine stories in English by Filipinos, was compiled in 1928 by Marquez-Benitez from the works of her students.

When her husband died in 1951, she took over as editor of the Philippine Journal of Education at UP. She held the editorial post for over two decades.

In 1995, her daughter, Virginia Benitez-Licuanan wrote her biography, "Paz Marquez-Benitez: One Woman's Life, Letters, and Writings."

Frank G. Rivera

(born 29 February 1948, Paete, Laguna, Philippines) 

Rivera was born on 29 February 1948 in Paete, Laguna. He received his AB English-Filipino degree from the University of the Philippines. He lead the movement for the theater when he established the Sining Kambayoka, a folk theater company on the campus of Mindanao State University in the 1970s.

He has won several awards, including the 8th Annual Gawad Ustetika Awards in the Play category, 1997 Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan para sa Tanghalan from the City of Manila and the 2002 National Book Award from the Manila Critics' Circle for his book,Mga Dula sa Magkakaibang Midyum.

He started out in Severino Montano's Arena Theatre Guild and Cecile Guidote’s PETA. He represented the Philippines in numerous International Theater Festivals and Conferences in the US, Korea, Thailand, Mexico, Singapore and Australia.

Works

1. Tuhog-tuhog (2005)
2. Jose Rizal: iba’t ibang Pananaw (2005)
3. Halik sa Kampilan (2005)
4. Makata sa Cellphone (2005)
5. TAO: Isang Tagulaylay Sa Ikadalawampu’t Isang Siglo (2004)
6. Oyayi, Ang Zarzuela (2004)
7. Darna, Etc. (2003)
8. Sining Kambayoka's Mga Kuwentong Maranao (2003)
9. Ambon, Ulan, Baha: Sarsuwelang Pinoy (2003)
10. Gothic Telemovies (2002)
11. MULAT: Mga Isyung Panlipunan sa mga Dulang Pantelebisyon(2002)
12. Mga Dula sa Magkakaibang Midyum (1982)
13. Ama at iba pa, Sari-saring Dula (1982)