Background
He was born on September 6, 1916.
He was born on September 6, 1916.
Arcellana already had ambitions of becoming a writer during his years in the elementary. Arcellana Grande continued writing in various school papers at the University of the Philippines Diliman. 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. In 2009, or 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
Arcellana died in 2002. As a National Artist, he received a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Arcellana"s published books include:
Selected Stories (1962)
Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1977)
The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990).
His actual writing, however, started when he became a member of The Torres Torch Organization during his high school years.