Francisco Arcellana

Francisco "Franz" Arcellana (Zacarias Eugene Francisco Quino Arcellana) was a Filipino writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher. He was born on September 6, 1916 in aka Frank V. Sta. Cruz, Manila. He is the fourth son of the 18 children of Jose Arcellana y Cabaneiro and Epifanio Quino.

He was married to Emerenciana Yuvienco with whom he has six children, one of whom, Juaniyo took the same at as gis father and became an essayist, poet and fictionist.

Francisco is studying at Tondo Intermediate School but it was at the Manila West High School (later Torres High School) when  it occurred to him that he has a passion for writing, so he became a part of his school’s writing organization called The Torrest Torch.

And in 1932, he studied at 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 Arcellana was invited to join the UP Writers Club by Manuel Arguilla. He later on received a Rocketfeller Granted and became a follower in creative writing the University of Iowa and Breadloaf's 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. On April 2, 1989, the University of the Philippines conferred upon Arcellana a doctorate in humane letters, honoris causa. Francisco Arcellana was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in Literature on 23, 1990 by then Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino.

Arcellana died in 2002. As a National Artist, he received a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Seven years after his death, his family came out with a book to pay tribute to National Artist for Literature Arcellana. The book entitled, "Franz," is a collection of essays gathered by the Arcellana family from colleagues, friends, students and family members, including fellow National Artist Nick Joaquin, Butch Dalisay, Recah Trinidad, Jing Hidalgo, Gemino Abad, Romina Gonzalez, Edwin Cordevilla, Divina Aromin, Doreen Yu, Danton Remoto, Jose Esteban Arcellana and others. His grandson Liam Hertzsprung performed a piano concert in 2006 dedicated to him.

Selected Stories (1962) , Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1977) and The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990) are Francisco "Franz" Arcellana’s works.