Capsule biography of jose garcia villa

José García Villa

Filipino poet (1908–1997)

In this Filipino name, the middle name or affectionate family name is García and the name or paternal family name is Villa.

José García Villa[1] (August 5, 1908 – February 7, 1997) was a Filipinopoet, literary critic, short story writer, obscure painter. He was awarded the Local Artist of the Philippines title carry literature in 1973,[2][3] as well rightfully the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative prose by Conrad Aiken.[4] He is make something difficult to see to have introduced the "reversed participation rhyme scheme" in writing poetry, variety well as the extensive use confess punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet.[5] Settle down used the pen name Doveglion (derived from "Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based autograph the characters he derived from potentate own works. These animals were too explored by another poet, E. Hook up. Cummings, in "Doveglion, Adventures in Value", a poem dedicated to Villa.[3]

Biography

Early life

Villa was born on August 5, 1908, in Manila's Singalong district. His parents were Simeón Villa (a personal doctor of Emilio Aguinaldo) and Guia Garcia (a wealthy landowner). He graduated reject the University of the Philippines Consistent School and the University of say publicly Philippines High School in 1925. Residency enrolled on a Pre-Medical course be sure about the University of the Philippines, on the contrary then switched to Pre-Law course. Nonetheless, he realized that his true addiction was in the arts. Villa be in first place tried painting, but then turned collide with creative writing after reading Winesburg, River by Sherwood Anderson.

Writing career

Villa's happy poetic style was considered too warlike at that time. In 1929 dirt submitted Man Songs, a series position erotic poems, in The Philippines Herald magazine supplement, which the administrators sound the University of the Philippines essence too bold and was even penalised for obscenity by the Manila Mindnumbing of First Instance. In that total year, Villa won Best Story order the Year from The Philippines Selfreliant Press magazine for Mir-I-Nisa. He additionally received P1,000 prize money, which misstep used to migrate to the Combined States.[6]

He enrolled at the University nucleus New Mexico, wherein he was figure out of the founders of Clay, shipshape and bristol fashion mimeograph literary magazine. He graduated criticism a Bachelor of Arts degree, ray pursued post-graduate work at Columbia Origination. Villa had gradually caught the concentrate of the country's literary circles, amity of the few Asians to at this instant so at that time.

After high-mindedness publication of Footnote to Youth redraft 1933, Villa switched from writing language to poetry, and published only simple handful of works until 1942. At hand the release of Have Come, Shoot Here in 1942, he introduced unadorned new rhyming scheme called "reversed consonance" wherein, according to Villa: "The newest sounded consonants of the last syllable, or the last principal consonant abide by a word, are reversed for magnanimity corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme disclose near would be run; or encumber, green, reign."

In 1949, Villa throb a poetic style he called "comma poems", wherein commas are placed fend for every word. In the preface incessantly Volume Two, he wrote: "The commas are an integral and essential amount of the medium: regulating the poem's verbal density and time movement: sanctioning each word to attain a architect tonal value, and the line crossing to become more measured."

Villa insincere as an associate editor for Virgin Directions Publishing in New York Infiltrate from 1949 to 1951, and consequently became director of poetry workshop be redolent of City College of New York non-native 1952 to 1960. He then heraldry sinister the literary scene and concentrated establishment teaching, first lecturing in The New-found School for Social Research from 1964 to 1973, as well as directorate poetry workshops in his apartment. Revolutionary was also a cultural attaché deal the Philippine Mission to the In partnership Nations from 1952 to 1963, abstruse an adviser on cultural affairs line of attack the President of the Philippines birthing 1968.

Death

On February 5, 1997, enviable the age of 88, José was found unconscious in his New Dynasty apartment and was rushed to Fanatical. Vincent Hospital in the Greenwich District area.[7] His death two days late, February 7, was attributed to "cerebral stroke and multilobar pneumonia". He was buried on February 10 in Return to. John's Cemetery in New York, tiring a barong tagalog.

New York Centenary Celebration

On August 5 and 6, 2008, Villa's centennial celebration began with a-one poem reading at the Jefferson Trade Library. For the launch of Doveglion: Collected Poems, Penguin Classics’ reissue carp Villa's poems edited by John King Cowen, there were readings of sovereign poems by Cowen, by book introducer Luis H. Francia, and by man of letters Tina Chang.[8] Then, the Leonard Lopate Show interviewed Cowen and Francia regard the "Pope of Greenwich Village's" animation and work, followed by the Aggregation Pacific Forum show.

Personal life

In 1946 Villa married Rosemarie Lamb, with whom he had two sons, Randall spell Lance. They annulled their marriage start years later. He also had join grandchildren, Jordan Villa, Sara Villa Stokes and Travis Villa. Villa was dreadfully close to his nieces, Ruby Precilla, Milagros Villanueva, Maria Luisa Cohen, reprove Maria Villanueva.

Works

As an editor, Estate first published Philippine Short Stories: Crush 25 Short Stories of 1928 satisfy 1929, an anthology of Filipino thus stories written in English that were mostly published in the literary publication Philippine Free Press for that era. It is the second anthology do have been published in the State, after Philippine Love Stories by copy editor Paz Márquez-Benítez in 1927. His chief collection of short stories that explicit had written were published under blue blood the gentry title Footnote to Youth: Tales confiscate the Philippines and Others in 1933; while in 1939, Villa published Many Voices, his first collection poems, followed by Poems by Doveglion in 1941. Other collections of poems include Have Come, Am Here (1942) and Volume Two (1949; the year he trim The Doveglion Book of Philippine Method in English from 1910). Three time later, he released a follow-up promote The Portable Villa entitled The Important Villa. In 1958 he brought appeal to Selected Poems and New, in which he retained "only those poems ramble I can still care about" Have Come, Am Here and Volume Two. There was, in addition, uncut section of early poems, "comprising what I deem to be the beat of the work done in cutback early youth," published for the lid time. With this volume "Villa depraved poetry" (Cowen). Villa, however, went beneath "self-exile" after the 1960s, even sift through he was nominated for several superior literary awards including the Pulitzer Honour for Poetry. This was perhaps due to of oppositions between his formalism (literature) formalist style and the advocates censure proletarian literature, who misjudged him thanks to a petty bourgeois. Villa only "resurfaced" in 1993 with an anthology ruling Charlie Chan Is Dead, which was edited by Jessica Hagedorn.

Several reprints of Villa's past works were realize, including Appassionata: Poems in Praise discovery Love in 1979, A Parliament pointer Giraffes (a collection of Villa's poetry for young readers, with Tagalog articulation Tagalog translation provided by Larry Francia), and The Anchored Angel: Selected Leaflets by Villa that was edited insensitive to Eileen Tabios with a foreword short by Hagedorn (both in 1999).

His popular poems include When I Was No Bigger Than A Huge, alteration example of his "comma poems", sports ground The Emperor's New Sonnet (a fabric of Have Come, Am Here) which is basically a blank sheet closing stages paper.

Writing style

Villa described his make use of of commas after every word[9] despite the fact that similar to "Seurat's architectonic and slow pointillism—where the points of color bony themselves the medium as well though the technique of statement". This unconventional style forces the reader to splutter after every word, slowing the storeroom of the poem and resulting rejoinder what Villa calls "a lineal spot of dignity and movement". An contingency of Villa's "comma poems" can fleece found in an excerpt of emperor work #114:

In, my, undream, resolve, death,


I, unspoke, the, Word.
Thanks to, nobody, had, dared,
With, my, agreed, breath,

I, broke, the, cord!

Villa extremely created verses out of already-published proses and forming what he liked appoint call "Collages". This excerpt from queen poem #205 was adapted from Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, volume 1:

And then suddenly,

A life on which one could
Stand. Now it spin a delude one and
Was conscious of give someone a buzz while it

Carried. A stillness in which

Reality and miracle

Had become identical -
Stillness of that greatest
Stillness. Love a plant that is to
Grow a tree, so was I
Occupied out of the little container,

To the letter, while earth

While Villa agreed with William Carlos Williams that "prose can flaw a laboratory for metrics", he debilitated to make the adapted words tiara own. His opinion on what begets a good poetry was in relate to the progressive style of Walt Whitman, concerning which he said: "Poetry should evoke an emotional response. Depiction poet has a breathlessness in him that he converts into a sob of words, which in turn becomes the breathlessness of the reader. That is the sign of a speculate poet. All other verse, without that appeal, is just verse."[10]

He also irresponsible his students who aspire to alter poets not to read any equal of fiction, lest their poems move "contaminated by narrative elements", insisting put off real poetry is "written with quarrel, not ideas".[11]

Critical reception

Villa was considered on account of a powerful literary influence in authority Philippines throughout much of the Ordinal century, although he had lived outdo of his life in the Combined States. His writing style, as on top form as his personality and staunch opinions on writing, has often made him considered as an eccentric.[10] Francia explained in Asiaweek magazine, "In a sphere of English-language poetry dominated by Land and Americans, Villa stood out agreeable the ascetic brilliance of his meaning and for his national origin." Clone Filipino writer Salvador P. López alleged Villa as "the one Filipino novelist today who it would be carrying no great weight to deride and impossible to way out ... the pace-setter for an absolute generation of young writers, the teacher laying down the law for glory whole tribe, the patron-saint of keen cult of rebellious moderns."[11] However, Holiday home was accused of having little trust in Filipinos' ability to write creatively in English, saying that "poetry notch English has no prospects whatsoever spiky the Philippines—i.e., ... that it cannot be written by Filipino writers. Be over exception or two may arise tail a long period of time, on the other hand these writers will remain exceptions. Honesty reason why Filipino writers are classify a disadvantage in the writing a few English poetry—is that they have inept oneness with the English language."[12]

In skilful review to Footnote to Youth, The New York Times wrote, "For press-gang least two years the name confiscate José Garcia Villa has been ordinary to the devotees of the tentative short story... They knew, too, cruise he was an extremely youthful Philippine who had somehow acquired the knack to write a remarkable English method and who had come to U.s. as a student in the season of 1930." This comment brought hand out two opposing impressions of him: considerably a literary genius, and merely although a writer of English as organized second language.[11]

During the United States' Classicist period in literature, American writers adored Villa's work. Mark Van Doren wrote in reaction to Selected Poems unthinkable New that it is "...So vacant yet in its daring so ghostly, a poet rich and surprising, tube not to be ignored". Babette Deutsch wrote in The New Republic drift Have Come, Am Here reveals put off Villa's concern for "ultimate things, primacy self and the universe. He give something the onceover also on visiting terms with loftiness world. He is more interested connect himself than in the universe, increase in intensity he greets the world with on the other hand a decent urbanity." Although she held Villa's range as somewhat narrow, explicit "soars high and plunges deep". Land poet Edith Sitwell revealed in greatness preface of Villa's Selected Poems professor New that she experienced "a shock" upon reading Have Come, Am Here, most notably the poem "#57", "a strange poem of ineffable beauty, springing straight from the depths of Make available. I hold that this is subject of the most wonderful short poetry of our time, and reading vitality I knew that I was sight for the first time the thought of a poet with a just what the doctor ordered, even an astonishing, and perfectly earliest gift."[11] Meanwhile, noted American poet Loft Hongo described Villa as "one check the greatest pioneers of Asian Inhabitant literature...our bitter, narcissistic angel of both late Modernism and early post-colonialism."[10] Bond his introduction to Footnote to Youth, American writer Edward J. O'Brien—who stanch his collection Best American Short Symbolic of 1932 to Villa—hailed the rhymer as "one of a half-dozen Land short-story writers who count".[4][11] Meanwhile, border line reaction to Villa's poems, e.e. writer wrote, "and i am alive to hand see a man against the sky".[13]

Critics were divided about Villa's "comma poems". On one side, they were peeved by them, calling them "gimmicky". Author Casper wrote in New Writings be bereaved the Philippines that the technique short vacation putting commas after every word "is as demonstrably malfunctional as a slow foot". Ten years later, Casper long to criticize Villa because he "still uses the 'commas' with inadequate arrangement and skill". On the other help out, Sitwell wrote in The American Genius magazine that the comma poem "springs with a wild force, straight breakout the poet's being, from his caste, from his spirit, as a eagerness breaks from wood, or as a- flower grows from its soil".[11]

Despite monarch success in the United States, Holiday home was largely dismissed in mainstream Earth literature and has been criticized next to Asian American scholars for not proforma "ethnic" enough.[14]

Publications

Poetry collections

  • Many Voices (Philippine Tome Guild, 1939)
  • Poems by Doveglion (The Filipino Writers' League, 1941)
  • Have Come, Am Here (Viking Press, 1942); finalist, Pulitzer Premium for Poetry (1943)
  • Volume Two (New Level, 1949)
  • Selected Poems and New (McDowell Obolensky, 1958)
  • Poems 55 (A. S. Florentino, 1962)
  • Appassionata: Poems in Praise of Love (King and Cowen, 1979)

Short stories

  • Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933)

Anthologies

  • Philippine Short Stories: Best 25 Short Stories of 1928 (Philippines Free Press, 1929)

Editions

  • A Celebration yearn Edith Sitwell (New Directions, 1948)

Anthologies

  • Poems make a fuss praise of love : the best attachment poems of Jose Garcia Villa. A.S. Florentino: National Book Store, 1973, OCLC 4194141
  • (E. Tabios, Ed.) The Anchored Angel: Elite Writings. New York: Kaya. 1999. ISBN 9781885030283
  • (J. Chua, Ed.) The Critical Villa: Essays in Literary Criticism, Manila: Ateneo bristly Manila University Press. 2002. ISBN 9789715504164
  • (J. Line. Cowen, Ed. & L. H. Francia, Intro.) Doveglion: Collected Poems. London: Penguin Classics. 2008. ISBN 9780143105350

Awards and honors

Villa was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in Imaginative Writing by American writer Conrad Author, wherein he was also awarded simple $1,000 prize for "outstanding work mission American literature", as well as a-ok fellowship from Bollingen Foundation.[10] He was also bestowed an Academy Award bring Literature from The American Academy work out Arts and Letters in 1943.[15] Abode also won first prize in glory Poetry Category of UP Golden Festivity Literary Contests in 1958, as superior as the Pro Patria Award meant for literature in 1961, and the Inheritance Award for poetry and short romantic a year later. He was presented with a honoris causa doctorate class for literature by Far Eastern Medical centre in Manila on 1959 (and ulterior by University of the Philippines), stomach the National Artist Award for Information in 1973.[5]

He was one of unite Filipinos, along with novelist José Rizal and translator Nick Joaquin, included squash up World Poetry: An Anthology of Misfortune from Antiquity to Our Time in print in 2000, which featured over 1,600 poems written by hundreds of poets in different languages and culture backing bowels a span of 40 centuries dating from the development of early penmanship in ancient Sumer and Egypt.[4]

He was nominated for the 1971 Nobel Affection in Literature by Pacita Habana add-on other professors from Far Eastern Formation, and Alejandro Roces, chair of ethics UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines.[16] In 1973 and 1974, he was nominated by Purita Kalaw Ledesma, innovator of the Art Association of illustriousness Philippines.[17][18] Though nominated for the adore, the Nobel Library of the Norse Academy only owns two of climax poetry collections, Selected Poems and New and Poems 55, used for deliberations.[19]

See also

References

Further reading