Cirilo F. Bautista Biography and Some Of His Famous Works

The life story and works of Cirilo F. Bautista, a national artist.

CIRILO F. BAUTISTA – Here’s the life story and some of the most famous works of Cirilo F. Bautista, a national artist and a poet.

Filipino poet, critic, and writer of nonfiction Cirilo F. Bautista was conferred the Order of National Artist for Literature in 2014 by late Philippine President Benigno C. Aquino, Jr. He had exceptional achievements and significant contributions to the improvement of the literary arts in the Philippines.

Presidential Proclamation No. 809 read: “Whereas, the works and achievements of Cirilo F. Bautista as a poet, fictionist and essayist have greatly contributed to the development of the country’s literary arts and has strengthened the Filipino’s sense of nationalism.”

He has actually written more than 20 books and the last one he did is the poetry collection “In Many Ways: Poems 2012-2016” which was published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House in 2018.

Here are some of his major works:

Summer Suns (1963)
Words and Battlefields (1998)
The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus (2001)
Galaw ng Asoge (2003)

Check out his poetries below:

Summer suns (1963)
The Cave and Other Poems (1968)
The Archipelago (1970)
Charts (1973)
Telex (1981)
Sugat ng Salita (1985)
Kirot Ng Kataga (1995),
Sunlight On Broken Stones (2000)
Tinik Sa Dila: Isang Katipunan Ng Mga Tula (2003)
The Trilogy Of Saint Lazarus (2001)
Believe and Betray: New and Collected Poems (2007)
Third World Geography
Pedagogic (2008)
Villanelle For Old Men

Stories (1990) and Galaw ng Asoge (2004) are his fiction stories.

He was born on July 9, 1941, in Manila, specifically in Bali-Balic in Sampaloc. He was a manga cum laude graduate of the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in AB Literature. He had his MA at St. Louis University and finished manga cum laude.

Cirilo earned his doctorate in Language and Literature from De La Salle University. He remained the only Filipino as of this date to receive an honorary degree from the prestigious International Program at the University of Iowa.

He was named to the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards Hall of Fame in 1995. He won five first prizes in Palanca and a total of nine awards for his essays, fiction, and poetry both in English and Filipino. He has taught at St. Louis University, San Beda College, and DLSU.

He died at the age of 76 in 2018.