Bienvenido N. Santos (1911-1996)
is a
Filipino-American fictionist,
poet and nonfiction writer.
He was born and raised in Tondo, Manila
.
His family
roots are originally from Lubao, Pampanga
, Philippines
. He lived in the United States
for many years where he is widely credited as a
pioneering Asian-American writer.
Biography
Santos received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of the Philippines
where he first studied creative writing under the tutelage of
pioneering fictionist
Paz Marquez
Benitez.
Santos was a government pensionado (scholar)
to the United
States
at the University of Illinois
, Columbia
University, and Harvard University
in 1941. During
World War II, he served with the Philippine
government in exile under President
Manuel L. Quezon in
Washington,
D.C.
together with the playwright Severino Montano and Philippine National
Artist Jose Garcia
Villa.
In 1946,
he returned to the Philippines
to become a teacher and university
administrator. He received a Rockefeller fellowship at the Writers Workshop
of the University of
Iowa
where he later taught as a Fulbright exchange professor. Santos has
also received a
Guggenheim Foundation
fellowship, a
Republic Cultural
Heritage Award in Literature as well as several
Palanca Awards for his short stories.
Scent of Apples, his only book to be
published in the United States, won an
American Book Award from the
Before Columbus Foundation in
1980.
Santos
received honorary doctorate degrees in Humanities and Letters from
the University of the
Philippines, and Bicol
University (Legazpi
City
, Albay
) in
1981. He was also a Professor of Creative Writing
and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Wichita State
University
(Kansas
, U.S.A.
) from 1973
to 1982. Santos also received an honorary doctorate
degree in Humane Letters from Wichita State University
in 1982. After his retirement, Santos became Visiting
Writer and Artist at De La Salle University
in Manila
.
De La Salle
University
honored Bienvenido Santos by renaming its Creative
Writing Center after him.Santos received his Bachelor of
Arts degree from the University of the Philippines where he first
studied creative writing under the tutelage of pioneering
]
Santos received honorary doctorate degrees in Humanities and
Letters from the University of the Philippines, and Bicol
University (Legazpi City, Albay) in 1981. He was also a Professor
of Creative Writing and Distinguished Writer in Residence at the
Wichita State University (Kansas, U.S.A.) from 1973 to 1982. Santos
also received an honorary doctorate degree in Humane Letters from
Wichita State University in 1982. After his retirement, Santos
became Visiting Writer and Artist at De La Salle University in
Manila.
De La Salle University honored Bienvenido Santos by renaming its
Creative Writing Center after him.an
Works
Novels
Short Story Collections
- Dear Miss Samonte
- You Lovely People (1955,1976)
- Brother, My Brother (1960)
- The Day the Dancers Came (1967,1983)
- Toledo is the Love (1969)
- Dwell in the Wilderness (1985)
COLLECTIONS OF LETTERS..(UNKNOWN)
Poetry
- The Wounded Stag (1956,1992)
- Distances: In Time (1983)
- The March of Death
Nonfiction
- Memory's Fictions: A Personal History (1993)
- Postscript to a Saintly Life (1994)
- Letters: Book 1 (1995)
- Letters: Book 2 (1996)
- My Most Memorable Christmas
Awards, Honors and Prizes
See also
Critical studies
as of March 2008:
- On Loss: Anticipating a Future for Asian American Studies By:
Shiu, Anthony Sze-Fai; MELUS: The Journal of the Society for
the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States,
2006 Spring; 31 (1): 3-33.
- Bienvenido N. Santos By: Tensuan, Theresa M.. IN: Madsen,
Asian American Writers. Detroit, MI: Gale; 2005. pp.
273-78
- Up from Benevolent Assimilation: At Home with the Manongs of
Bienvenido Santos By: Bascara, Victor; MELUS: The Journal of
the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the
United States, 2004 Spring; 29 (1): 61-78.
- A Filipino Prufrock in an Alien Land: Bienvenido Santos's
The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor By: Ty,
Eleanor; Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 2001 Sept;
12 (3): 267-83.
- Bienvenido N. Santos (1911-1996) By: Mannur, Anita. IN: Nelson,
Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical
Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood; 2000. pp. 317-22
- Themes in the Poetry of Bienvenido Santos By: Rico, Victoria.
IN: Garcia, The Likhaan Book of Philippine Criticism.
Quezon City, Philippines: U of the Philippines P; 2000. pp.
174-96
- Filipino Writing in the United States: Reclaiming Whose
America? By: San Juan, E., Jr.. IN: Garcia, J. Neil C.; The
Likhaan Book of Philippine Criticism. Quezon City,
Philippines: U of the Philippines P; 2000. pp. 441-64
- The Novels of Bienvenido N. Santos By: Grow,
L. M.. Quezon City, Philippines: Giraffe; 1999.
- Filipino American Literature By: Gonzalez, N. V. M.. IN:
Cheung, An Interethnic Companion to Asian American
Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP; 1996. pp. 62-124
- You Lovely People: The Texture of Alienation By: Rico,
Victoria S.; Philippine Studies, 1994; 42 (1):
91-104.
- Marriage in Philippine-American Fiction By: Manuel, Dolores de;
Philippine Studies, 1994; 42 (2): 210-16.
- Themes in the Poetry of Bienvenido Santos By: Rico, Victoria;
Philippine Studies, 1994; 42 (4): 452-74.
- Split-Level Christianity in The Praying Man By:
Puente, Lorenzo; Philippine Studies, 1992; 40 (1):
111-20.
- The Myth and the Matrix in Bienvenido N. Santos' Scent of
Apples: Searching for Harmony among Incongruities By: Valdez,
Maria Stella; DLSU Dialogue, 1991; 25 (1): 73-86.
- The Poet and the Garden: The Green World of Bienvenido N.
Santos By: Grow, L. M.; World Literature Written in
English, 1989 Spring; 29 (1): 136-145.
- Echoes and Reflections in Villa Magdalena By: Vidal, Lourdes
H.; Philippine Studies, 1987; 35 (3): 377-382.
- Can These, Too, Be Midwestern? Studies of Two Filipino Writers
By: Bresnahan, Roger J.; Midamerica: The Yearbook of the
Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, 1986; 8:
134-147.
- Modern Philippine Poetry in the Formative Years: 1920-1950 By:
Grow, L. M.; ARIEL: A Review of International English
Literature, 1984 July; 15 (3): 81-98.
- The Christian World-View of Bienvenido N. Santos By: Grow, L.
M.; AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language
and Literature Association, 1983 Nov.; 60: 234-251.
- The Midwestern Fiction of Bienvenido N. Santos By: Bresnahan,
Roger J.; Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature
Newsletter, 1983 Summer; 13 (2): 28-37.
- Augusto F. Espiritu, "Fidelity and Shame: Bienvenido Santos,"
in Five Faces of Exile: The Nation and Filipino American
Intellectuals. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. pp.
139-178.
External links