F.

Sionil José

Francisco Sionil José (December 3, 1924

– January 6, 2022) was a Filipino writer
who was one of the most widely read in
the English language.[1][2] A National Artist
of the Philippines for Literature, which was
bestowed upon him in 2001, José's novels
and short stories depict the social
underpinnings of class struggles and
colonialism in Filipino society.[3] His works
—written in English—have been translated
into 28 languages, including Korean,
Indonesian, Czech, Russian, Latvian,
Ukrainian and Dutch.[4][5] He was often
considered the leading Filipino candidate
for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[6][7]
 F. Sionil José

José in 2017
Born Francisco Sionil José
December 3, 1924
Rosales, Pangasinan,
Philippine Islands
Died January 6, 2022
(aged 97)
Makati, Metro Manila,
Philippines
Pen name F. Sionil José
Occupation Filipino Novelist,
Writer, Journalist
Nationality Filipino
Alma mater Far Eastern University
University of Santo
Tomas (dropped out)
Period 1962–2022
Genre Fiction
Literary movement Philippine literature in
English
Notable works The "Rosales Saga"
Novels (1962–1984)
Notable awards Order of National
Artists of the
Philippines
Pablo Neruda
Centennial Award
(2004) · Chevalier
 dans l'Ordre des Arts
et Lettres (2000) ·
Ramon Magsaysay
Award for
Journalism, Literature
and Creative
Communication Arts
(1980) · City of
Manila Award for
Literature (1979) ·
Carlos Palanca
Memorial Award for
Literature (1959,
1979, 1980, 1981)
Spouse Tessie Jovellanos
Jose

Literature portal
Early life

F. Sionil José Bust monument

(Rosales, Pangasinan Presidencia).

The Inscription in the Monument

(February 23, 2007).

José was born in Rosales, Pangasinan, the

setting of many of his stories. He spent his
childhood in Barrio Cabugawan, Rosales,
where he first began to write. José is of
Ilocano descent whose family had
migrated to Pangasinan prior to his birth.
Fleeing poverty, his forefathers traveled
from Ilocos towards Cagayan Valley
through the Santa Fe Trail. Like many
migrant families, they brought their
lifetime possessions with them, including
uprooted molave posts of their old houses
and their alsong, a stone mortar for
pounding rice.[1][2][3]

One of the greatest influences to José was

his industrious mother who went out of
her way to get him the books he loved to
read, while making sure her family did not
go hungry despite poverty and
landlessness. José started writing in grade
school, at the time he started reading. In
the fifth grade, one of José's teachers
opened the school library to her students,
which is how José managed to read the
novels of José Rizal, Willa Cather’s My
Antonia, Faulkner and Steinbeck. Reading
about Basilio and Crispin in Rizal's Noli Me
Tangere made the young José cry,
because injustice was not an alien thing to
him. When José was five years old, his
grandfather who was a soldier during the
Philippine revolution, had once tearfully
showed him the land their family had once
tilled but was taken away by rich mestizo
landlords who knew how to work the
system against illiterates like his
grandfather.[1][2][3]
Writing career
José attended the University of Santo
Tomas after World War II, but dropped out
and plunged into writing and journalism in
Manila. In subsequent years, he edited
various literary and journalistic
publications, started a publishing house,
and founded the Philippine branch of PEN,
an international organization for
writers.[1][2] José received numerous
awards for his work. The Pretenders is his
most popular novel, which is the story of
one man's alienation from his poor
background and the decadence of his
wife's wealthy family.[3]
José Rizal's life and writings profoundly
influenced José's work. The five volume
Rosales Saga, in particular, employs and
integrates themes and characters from
Rizal's work.[8] Throughout his career,
José's writings espouse social justice and
change to better the lives of average
Filipino families. He is one of the most
critically acclaimed Filipino authors
internationally, although much underrated
in his own country because of his
authentic Filipino English and his anti-elite
views.[1][2][3]

"Authors like myself choose the

city as a setting for their fiction
 because the city itself illustrates
the progress or the
sophistication that a particular
country has achieved. Or, on the
other hand, it might also reflect
the kind of decay, both social
and perhaps moral, that has
come upon a particular people."

— F. Sionil José, BBC.com,

30 July 2003[1]

Sionil José also owned Solidaridad

Bookshop, located on Padre Faura Street
in Ermita, Manila. The bookshop offers
mostly hard-to-find books and Filipiniana
reading materials. It is said to be one of
the favorite haunts of many local
writers.[1][2][3]

In his regular column, Hindsight, in The

Philippine STAR, dated September 12,
2011, he wrote "Why we are shallow",
blaming the decline of Filipino intellectual
and cultural standards on a variety of
modern amenities, including media, the
education system—particularly the loss of
emphasis on classic literature and the
study of Greek and Latin—and the
abundance and immediacy of information
on the Internet.[9]
Death
José died on the night of January 6, 2022,
aged 97, at the Makati Medical Center,
where he was scheduled for an
angioplasty the next day.[10][11][12]

Awards
Five of José's works have won the Carlos
Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature:
his short stories The God Stealer in 1959,
Waywaya in 1979, Arbol de Fuego (Firetree)
in 1980, his novel Mass in 1981, and his
essay A Scenario for Philippine Resistance
in 1979.[13]
Since the 1980s, various award-giving
bodies have feted José with awards for his
outstanding works and for being an
outstanding Filipino in the field of
literature. His first award was the 1979
City of Manila Award for Literature which
was presented to him by Manila Mayor
Ramon Bagatsing. The following year, he
was given the prestigious Ramon
Magsaysay Award for Journalism,
Literature and Creative Communication
Arts. Among his other awards during that
period include the Outstanding
Fulbrighters Award for Literature (1988)
and the Cultural Center of the Philippines
Award (Gawad para sa Sining) for
Literature (1989).

By the turn of the century, José continued

to receive recognition from several award-
giving bodies. These include the Cultural
Center of the Philippines Centennial Award
in 1999, the prestigious Chevalier dans
l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2000, and the
Order of Sacred Treasure (Kun Santo Zuiho
Sho) in 2001. In that same year, the
Philippine government bestowed upon him
the prestigious title of National Artist for
Literature for his outstanding contributions
to Philippine literature.[14] In 2004, José
garnered the coveted Pablo Neruda
Centennial Award in Chile.[15]

Works

Rosales Saga novels

A five-novel series that spans three

centuries of Philippine history, translated
into 22 languages :

Po-on (Source) (1984) ISBN 971-8845-

10-0
The Pretenders (1962) ISBN 971-8845-
00-3
My Brother, My Executioner (1973)
ISBN 971-8845-16-X
 Mass (December 31, 1974) ISBN 0-
86861-572-2
Tree (1978) ISBN 971-8845-14-3

Original novels containing the

Rosales Saga

Source (Po-on) (1993) ISBN 0-375-

75144-0
Don Vicente (1980) ISBN 0-375-75243-9
– Tree and My Brother, My Executioner
combined in one book
The Samsons ISBN 0-375-75244-7 The
Pretenders and Mass combined in one
book

Other novels
Gagamba (The Spider Man) (1991)
ISBN 978-971-536-105-7
Viajero (1993) ISBN 978-971-8845-04-2
Sin (1973) ISBN 0-517-28446-4
Ben Singkol (2001) ISBN 971-8845-32-1
Ermita (1988) ISBN 971-8845-12-7
Vibora! (2007)
Sherds (2008)
Muse and Balikbayan: Two Plays (2008)
Short Stories (with Introduction and
Teaching Guide by Thelma B. Kintanar)
(2008)
The Feet of Juan Bacnang (2011)
Novellas

Three Filipino Women (1992)

ISBN 9780307830289
Two Filipino Women (1981)
ISBN 9711001136

Short story collections

The God Stealer and Other Stories (2001)

ISBN 971-8845-35-6
Puppy Love and Thirteen Short Stories
(March 15, 1998) ISBN 971-8845-26-7
and ISBN 978-971-8845-26-4
Olvidon and Other Stories (1988)
ISBN 971-8845-18-6
 Platinum: Ten Filipino Stories (1983)
ISBN 971-8845-22-4 (now out of print,
its stories are added to the new version
of Olvidon and Other Stories)
Waywaya: Eleven Filipino Short Stories
(1980) ISBN 99922-884-0-X
Asian PEN Anthology (as editor) (1966)
Short Story International (SSI): Tales by
the World's Great Contemporary Writers
(Unabridged, Volume 13, Number 75)
(co-author, 1989) ISBN 1-55573-042-6

Children's books

The Molave and The Orchid (November

2004)
Verses

Questions (1988)

Essays and non-fiction

In Search of the Word (De La Salle

University Press, March 15, 1998)
ISBN 971-555-264-1 and ISBN 978-971-
555-264-6
We Filipinos: Our Moral Malaise, Our
Heroic Heritage (1999)
Soba, Senbei and Shibuya: A Memoir of
Post-War Japan (2000) ISBN 971-8845-
31-3 and ISBN 978-971-8845-31-8
Heroes in the Attic, Termites in the Sala:
Why We are Poor (2005)
 This I Believe: Gleanings from a Life in
Literature (2006)
Literature and Liberation (co-author)
(1988)

In translation

Zajatec bludného kruhu (The Pretenders)

(Czech language, Svoboda, 1981)
Po-on (Tagalog language, De La Salle
University Press, 1998) ISBN 971-555-
267-6 and ISBN 978-971-555-267-7
Anochecer (Littera) (Spanish language,
Maeva, October 2003) ISBN 84-95354-
95-0 and ISBN 978-84-95354-95-2
In anthologies

Tong (a short story from Brown River,

White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth-
Century Philippine Literature in English by
Luis Francia, Rutgers University Press,
August 1993) ISBN 0-8135-1999-3 and
ISBN 978-0-8135-1999-9

In film documentaries

Francisco Sionil José – A Filipino

Odyssey by Art Makosinski
(Documentary, in color, 28min, 16mm.
Winner of the Golden Shortie for Best
Documentary at the 1996 Victoria Film
and Video Festival)[16]
Reviews

"...the foremost Filipino novelist

in English... his novels deserve a
much wider readership than the
Philippines can offer. His major
work, the Rosales saga, can be
read as an allegory for the
Filipino in search of an
identity..."

— Ian Buruma, The New

York Review of Books[17]
"Sionil José writes English prose
with a passion that, at its best
moments, transcends the
immediate scene. (He) is a
masterful short story writer..."

— Christine Chapman,
International Herald
Tribune, Paris[17]

"...America has no counterpart

to José – no one who is
simultaneously a prolific
novelist, a social and political
organizer, and a small scale
entrepreneur...José's identity has
equipped him to be fully
sensitive to the nation's miseries
without succumbing, like many
of his characters to corruption
or despair...

— James Fallows, The

Atlantic Monthly[17]

"...The reader of his well crafted

stories will learn more about the
Philippines, its people and its
concerns than from any
journalistic account or from a
 holiday trip there. José's books
takes us to the heart of the
Filipino mind and soul, to the
strengths and weaknesses of its
men, women, and culture.

— Lynne Bundesen, Los

Angeles Times[17]

See also
Philippines
portal

Philippine literature in Spanish

Philippine literature in English
Literature of the Philippines
 Philippine English
Thomasites
Philinda Rand
Stevan Javellana

References
1. Jose, F. Sionil (July 30, 2003). "Sense of the
City: Manila" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/w
orld/asia-pacific/3109471.stm) . BBC
News. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
2. "Author Spotlight: F. Sionil Jose" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20080225090702/http://
www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pp
erl?authorid=14838) . Random House.
Archived from the original (http://www.rand
omhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authori
d=14838) on February 25, 2008. Retrieved
June 14, 2007.
3. Macansantos, Priscilla S. (April 25, 2007).
"A Hometown as Literature for F. Sionil
José" (https://web.archive.org/web/201107
16082346/http://globalnation.inquirer.net/f
eatures/features/view_article.php?article_i
d=62431) . Global Nation. Inquirer.net.
Archived from the original (http://globalnati
on.inquirer.net/features/features/view_artic
le.php?article_id=62431) on July 16, 2011.
Retrieved June 14, 2007.
4. Garcia, Cathy Rose. (April 27, 2007). "Author
F. Sionil Jose's Insight on Philippines" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2011052010332
3/http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/
art/art_view.asp?newsIdx=1921&categoryC
ode=142) . Arts & Living. The Korea Times.
Archived from the original (http://www.kore
atimes.co.kr/www/news/art/art_view.asp?
newsIdx=1921&categoryCode=142) on
May 20, 2011. Retrieved December 19,
2008.
5. Garcia, Cathy Rose. (April 27, 2007). "Author
F. Sionil Jose's Insight on Philippines" (htt
p://bookasia.org/bbs/view.php?id=news&n
o=86) . BookAsia.org (Korean website).
Retrieved December 19, 2008.
6. Leslie Nguyen-Okwu (October 11, 2015).
"Will Francisco Sionil José Ever Win the
Nobel Prize?" (https://www.ozy.com/the-ne
w-and-the-next/will-francisco-sionil-jose-eve
r-win-the-nobel-prize/65023/) . ozy.com.
Retrieved May 21, 2022.
7. Aldrin Calimlim (October 13, 2016).
"Reading list: The Nobel Prize in Literature
of the 2010s" (https://www.cnnphilippines.c
om/life/culture/literature/2016/10/12/nobe
l-prize-winners-2010s.html) . CNN.
Retrieved May 21, 2022.
8. Scalice, Joseph (December 17, 2004).
"Articulating Revolution: Rizal in F. Sionil
José's Rosales Saga" (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20080214180911/http://josephscal
ice.com/index.php/2004/12/17/articulating
-revolution-rizal-in-f-sionil-joses-rosales-sag
a/) . Archived from the original (http://josep
hscalice.com/index.php/2004/12/17/articu
lating-revolution-rizal-in-f-sionil-joses-rosale
s-saga/) on February 14, 2008. Retrieved
December 19, 2006.
9. José, F. Sionil (September 11, 2011). "Why
we are shallow" (http://www.philstar.com/a
rts-and-culture/725822/why-we-are-shallo
w) . The Philippine Star. Retrieved
October 11, 2014.
10. Mydans, Seth (January 7, 2022). "F. Sionil
Jose, 97, Novelist Who Saw Heroism in
Ordinary Filipinos, Dies" (https://www.nytim
es.com/2022/01/07/world/asia/f-sionil-jos
e-dead.html) . The New York Times.
ISSN 0362-4331 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/issn/0362-4331) . Retrieved January 8,
2022.
11. "National Artist F Sionil Jose dies at 97" (htt
ps://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/literatu
re/national-artist-f-sionil-jose-dies/) .
Rappler. January 6, 2022. Retrieved
January 6, 2022.
12. "Literary giant F. Sionil Jose dies at 97" (htt
ps://www.manilatimes.net/2022/01/07/ne
ws/philippine-literary-giant-f-sionil-jose-dies
-at-97/1828505) . The Manila Times.
January 8, 2022. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
13. "Guest of Honor Introduction - NATIONAL
ARTIST FOR LITERATURE – MR. F. SIONIL
JOSE" (http://www.palancaawards.com.ph/
Testing3/francisco-sionil-jose-speech/) .
Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards. 2011.
Retrieved April 28, 2016.
14. "Culture Profile: F. Sionil José" (http://ncca.
gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profil
e/national-artists-of-the-philippines/f-sionil-
jose/) . About Culture and Arts. National
Commission for Culture and Arts. 2002.
Retrieved June 16, 2007.
15. Sarao, Zacarian. "National Artist for
Literature F. Sionil Jose dies at 97" (https://
newsinfo.inquirer.net/1537272/national-arti
st-for-literature-f-sionil-jose-dies-at-97) .
Inquirer.net. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
16. Makosinski, Art (1996). "Francisco Sionil
José – A Filipino Odyssey" (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20070611231803/http://ww
w.me.uvic.ca/~art/fsj.html) . ME.UVIC.ca.
Archived from the original (http://www.me.
uvic.ca/~art/fsj.html) on June 11, 2007.
Retrieved June 16, 2007.
17. Makosinski, Art. "About Francisco Sionil
José" (https://web.archive.org/web/200706
09094552/http://www.engr.uvic.ca/~art/af
sj.html) . Engr.Uvic.ca. Archived from the
original (http://www.engr.uvic.ca/~art/afsj.
html) on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 16,
2007.

Further reading
The Writings of F. Sionil Jose, Archives,
The New York Times (https://query.nyti
mes.com/search/query?query=F.+Sionil
+Jose&srchst=nyt) . Retrieved on June
16, 2007
The Works of Francisco Sionil Jose, The
New York Public Library (http://www.nyp
l.org/searchSum.cfm) . Retrieved on
June 16, 2007
Books of F. Sionil Jose, Amazon.com (ht
tps://www.amazon.com/s?rs=1000&rh=
n%3A1000%2Cp%5F27%3AF.%20Sionil%
20Jos%C3%A9&page=1) . Retrieved on
June 16, 2007
Filipino English: Literature As We Think It
(from F. Sionil Jose's Keynote Lecture at
the Conference on "Literatures in
Englishes" at the National University of
Singapore), F. Sionil Jose: National Artist
for Literature, Foremost Novelist, and
Stanford.edu, March 19, 2006 (http://fsi
oniljose.blogspot.com) . Retrieved on
June 16, 2007
Jose, F. Sionil. "We Who Stayed Behind
(Many fled the Philippines during the
Marcos years, writes F. Sionil Jose. But
what about those who remained?)",
Asian Journey, Time Asia magazine
(18–25 August 2003 issue), Time.com,
11 August 2007 (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20030829020921/http://www.ti
me.com/time/asia/2003/journey/letters
_jose.html) . Retrieved on June 21, 2007
Allen Gaborro, A book review about Sins,
a novel by F. Sionil Jose, Random House,
1996, Eclectica.org (http://www.eclectic
a.org/v1n2/gaborro.html) . Retrieved on
April 22, 2008
Frankie Sionil José: A Tribute by Edwin
Thumboo (editor) (Times Academic
Press, Singapore, January 2005)
ISBN 981-210-425-9 and ISBN 978-981-
210-425-0
Conversations with F. Sionil José by
Miguel A. Bernard (editor) (Vera-Reyes
Publishing Inc., Philippines, 304 pages,
1991
The Ilocos: A Philippine Discovery by
James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly
magazine, Volume 267, No. 5, May 1991
F. Sionil José and His Fiction by Alfredo
T. Morales (Vera-Reyes Publishing Inc.,
Philippines, 129 pages)
Die Rosales Saga von Francisco Sionil
José. Postkoloniale Diskurse in der
Romanfolge eines Philippinischen Autors
by Hergen Albus (SEACOM Edition,
Berlin, 2009)
Post-colonial Discourses in Francisco
Sionil José's Rosales Saga: Post-colonial
Theory vs. Philippine Reality in the Works
of a Philippine Autor by Hergen Albus
(Südwestdeutscher Verlag für
Hochschulschriften, 14. November
2012)
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to F.
Sionil José.
F. Sionil José: The Myth of a Filipino
Writer (http://www.fsioniljose.tk)
Full Text: The God Stealer by F. Sionil
Jose (https://www.scribd.com/doc/486
89567/The-God-Stealer-F-Sionil-Jose)

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