Bienvenido Santos

Infobox Writer
name = Bienvenido Santos


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birthdate = 1911
birthplace = Tondo, Manila
deathdate = 1996
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nationality = Filipino
period = 1955-1987
genre = short story, novel
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notableworks = "Scent of Apples" (1979) "What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco?" (1987)
spouse =
partner =
children =
relatives =
influences = Paz Marquez Benitez
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awards = Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards (1956, 1961, 1965) Republic Cultural Heritage Award in Literature American Book Award (1980) Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship


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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.

Works

Novels

*"The Volcano" (1965)
*"Villa Magdalena " (1965)
*"The Praying Man" (1977)
*"The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert Taylor" (1983)
*"What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco?" (1987)

hort Story Collections

*"You Lovely People" (1955,1976)
*"Brother, My Brother" (1960)
*"The Day the Dancers Came" (1967,1983)
*"Scent of Apples" (1979)
*"Dwell in the Wilderness" (1985)

Poetry

*"The Wounded Stag" (1956,1992)
*"Distances: In Time" (1983)

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

*Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the University of Iowa
*Guggenheim Fellowship
*"Republic Cultural Heritage Award"
*Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for short fiction (1956, 1961 and 1965)
*Fulbright Program Exchange Professorship
*"American Book Award" from "Before Columbus Foundation"
*"Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters", University of the Philippines
*"Honorary Doctorate in Humanities and Letters", Bicol University (Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines)
*"Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters", Wichita State University (Kansas, U.S.A.)

See also

*List of Asian American writers

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

* [http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0880711.html Bienvenido Santos in infoplease]
* [http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0880711.html People: Bienvenido Santos]
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?authoruid=3932&golist=true&exact=true The Literary Encyclopedia ]
* [http://www.enotes.com/immigration-blues/36748 Immigration blues]
* [http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Groups/Filipino.htm Filipino-American literature]
* [http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Groups/Santos.htm A guide to literary criticism on the internet for Bienvenido Santos]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2278/is_1_29/ai_n6148067/pg_2 Up from benevolent assimilation: at home with the Manongs of Bienvenido Santos by Victor Bascara]
* [http://www.palhbooks.com/FilipinoWriters.html Filipino Writers Album]
* [http://www.reflectionsofasia.com/santos.htm Books of Bienvenido Santos]
* [http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Filipino.html Filipino-American Literature at Emory University]
* [http://www.palhbooks.com/literary.html PALH Books on Philippine Literature ]
* [http://www.uoregon.edu/~ethnic/Syllabi/2005_06/ENG%20245Asian.htm Introduction to Asian Pacific American Literature at the University of Oregon]
* [http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/research/centers/bnscwc/bns.asp De la Salle University]
* [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_asian_american_studies/v005/5.2jesus.html Rereading History, Rewriting Desire: Reclaiming Queerness in Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart and Bienvenido Santos' Scent Of Apples by Melinda L. de Jesus]
* [http://webs.wichita.edu/dt/insidewsu/show/article.asp?293 Wichita State University]