Filipino poet, critic and writer (1941-2018
Cirilo F. Bautista (July 9, 1941 – May 6, 2018) was a Filipino poet, critic and writer of nonfiction. A National Artist of the Philippines award was conferred on him in 2014.
Early life and education
Bautista was born in Manila on July 9, 1941, and spent his childhood in Balic-Balic, Sampaloc.[1]
He received his basic education from Legarda Elementary School (1st Honorable Mention, 1954) and Victorino Mapa High School (Valedictorian, 1959). He received his degrees in AB Literature from the University of Santo Tomas (magna cum laude, 1963), MA Literature from St. Louis University, Baguio (magna cum laude, 1968), and Doctor of Arts in Language and Literature from De La Salle University-Manila (1990). He received a fellowship to attend the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (1968–1969).
Career
Bautista taught creative writing and literature at St. Louis University (1963–1968) and the University of Santo Tomas (1969–1970) before moving to De La Salle University-Manila in 1970. He is also a co-founding member of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC) and a member of the Manila Critics Circle, Philippine Center of International PEN and the Philippine Writers Academy.
Bautista has also received Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards (for poetry, fiction and essay in English and Filipino) as well as Philippines Free Press Awards for Fiction, Manila Critics' Circle National Book Awards, Gawad Balagtas from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas, the Pablo Roman Prize for the Novel, and the highest accolades from the City of Manila, Quezon City and Iligan City. Bautista was hailed in 1993 as Makata ng Taon by the Komisyon ng mga Wika ng Pilipinas for winning the poetry contest sponsored by the government. The last part of his epic trilogy The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus, entitled Sunlight on Broken Stones, won the Centennial Prize for the epic in 1998. He was an exchange professor in Waseda University and Ohio University. He became an Honorary Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa in 1969, and was the first recipient of a British Council fellowship as a creative writer at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1987.
Bautista works include Boneyard Breaking, Sugat ng Salita, The Archipelago, Telex Moon, Summer Suns, Charts, The Cave and Other Poems, Kirot ng Kataga, and Bullets and Roses: The Poetry of Amado V. Hernandez. His novel Galaw ng Asoge was published by the University of Santo Tomas Press in 2004. His latest book, Believe and Betray: New and Collected Poems, appeared in 2006, published by De La Salle University Press.
His poems have appeared in major literary journals, papers, and magazines in the Philippines and in anthologies published in the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, China, Romania, Hong Kong, Germany and Malaysia. These include: excerpts from Sunlight on Broken Stones, published in World Literature Today, USA, Spring 2000; What Rizal Told Me (poem), published in Manoa, University of Hawaii, 1997; She of the Quick Hands: My Daughter and The Seagull (poems), published in English Teacher’s Portfolio of Multicultural Activities, edited by John Cowen (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
Aside from his teaching, creative and research activities as a Professor Emeritus of Literature at the College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University-Manila, Bautista was also a columnist and literary editor of the Philippine Panorama, the Sunday Supplement of the Manila Bulletin. He was also a member of the Board of Advisers and Associate, Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center of De La Salle University-Manila and Senior Associate, The Center for Creative Writing and Studies of the University of Santo Tomas.
Death
Bautista died on May 6, 2018.[2] He was laid to rest following a state funeral at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.[3]
Personal life
Cirilo Bautista was married to Rosemarie Bautista and had three children.[1]
Order of National Artists of the Philippines
