F. Sionil Jose

José was of Ilocano descent whose family had migrated to Pangasinan before his birth. José was born in Rosales, Pangasinan. It is the setting of many of his stories. Fleeing poverty, his forefathers traveled from Ilocos towards Cagayan Valley through the Santa Fe Trail. Like many migrant families, they even brought their lifetime possessions, the only things which help them to live, with them, including uprooted molave posts of their old houses and their alsong, a stone mortar for pounding rice.

Some of the works of F. Sionil Jose are as follows: Jose's first novels were serialized in the Weekly Women's Magazine: The Chief Mourner, 1953, The Balete Tree, 1956, the second version of which was published in 1977. In 1962 he published the best known of all his novels, The Pretenders. His other novels are My Brother, My Executioner, 1979; Mass, 1982; Po-on, 1984; Ermita, 1988; and Viajero (Traveller), 1993. He has published the following short-story collections: The God Stealer and Other Stories, 1968; Selected Works, 1977; Waywaya: Eleven Filipino Short Stories , 1980; and Platinum: Ten Filipino Stories and Olvidon and Other Stories , 1988. He also wrote a novella, Two Filipino Women, 1981, and has authored a poetry collection, Questions, 1988. His writings have also appeared in literary journals and anthologies all over Asia and in American and German publications.

Jose is a multi awarded fictionist whose works have been translated into several languages: Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Dutch, Indonesian, and Ilocano.

• He has won three first-prize awards in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for the short stories, “The God Stealer,” 1959; “Waywaya,” 1979; and “Arbol de Fuego” (Firetree), 1980
• Grand prize in the CCP Literary contests for the novel Tree , 1979; three first-prize awards from the National Press Club, 1957, 1961 and 1962; the Fernando Ma. Guerrero Memorial Foundation Award for Literature from UST
• the Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Tree , and the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award from the city government of Manila, all in 1979
• Tawid Awardee for Cultural Nationalism from the Ilocano Heritage Foundation
• Palanca Awardee grand prize for his novel Mass , 1981.

· He became national Artist for Literature in 2001.

• Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts (1980)
• Pablo Neruda Centennial Award (2004)

(R.C. Lucero and M. Pulan)

"...The reader of his well crafted stories will learn more about the Philippines, its people and its concerns than from any journalistic account or from a holiday trip there. José's books take us to the heart of the Filipino mind and soul, to the strengths and weaknesses of its men, women, and culture. (Lynne Bundesen, Los Angeles Times)”

One of the greatest influences to José was his industrious mother who went out of her way to get him the books he loved to read, while making sure her family did not go hungry despite of poverty and landlessness. José managed to read the novels of José Rizal, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Faulkner and Steinbeck.

Throughout his career, José's writings espouse social justice and change to better the lives of average Filipino families. He is one of the most critically acclaimed Filipino authors internationally, although much underrated in his own country because of his authentic Filipino English and his anti-elite views.

"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." (F. Sionil José, BBC.com, July 30, 2003)

Reference:

January 14, 2010 1:17pm

<http://nationalartists.panitikan.com.ph/>

January 14, 2010 1:26pm

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F_sionil_jose>