A great writer returns: Gregorio C Brillantes comes home to Ateneo

Reclusive writer Gregorio C Brillantes (BLitt 1952) returned to Ateneo de Manila University on 26 July 2023, for the launch of The Collected Stories of Gregorio C. Brillantes, published by the university press, at the Ben Chan Art Suite, Areté. Some 60 guests, including prominent scholars, writers, and artists, arrived to greet the author, who turned 90 last December, in person. 

The book gathers for the first time 39 of Brillantes’s award-winning stories, written between the 1950s and 2000, including “The Distance to Andromeda,” “Faith, Love, Time, and Dr. Lazaro,” and “The Flood in Tarlac.” The book comes with introductions by Reine Arcache Melvin and Jonathan Chua, the book’s editor. 

The launch, emceed by Erwin Romulo, former editor of Esquire, featured testimonials to Brillantes from former tourism secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta, actor Evangeline Pascual, and award-winning novelist Jose Y Dalisay. Glenn Mas, faculty member of the Fine Arts Department, read an excerpt from Brillantes’s story “The Years.”  Singer and actor Lynn Sherman performed two songs (“Someone to Watch over Me” and “Unforgettable”). Brillantes’s granddaughters Katerina and Rebecca Silvestre, who read all of his stories for the first time during the book's preparation, recounted the belated yet meaningful impression that the stories made on them. Their testimonial attests to the capacity of Brillantes’s works to transcend the generations. 

Outgoing press director Karina Bolasco and incoming press director Rica Bolipata Santos formally presented the author with a copy of the book. 

Brillantes was accompanied by his wife, Lourdes Castrillo Brillantes, who taught Spanish with the university’s Department of Modern Languages and who authored 80 Años de Premio Zobel, and his daughters Alicia and Patricia, who taught Philippine Music and Culture with the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. 

Brillantes attended Ateneo de Manila as a college freshman in 1948, graduating with a Bachelor of Letters, major in journalism. He was the editor of the Ateneo Quarterly, a literary magazine that was the forerunner of Heights. His stories began appearing in national magazines shortly after his graduation from college. He would receive numerous prizes for his stories and essays and eventually would be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature. In 2009, the university gave him the Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi for his outstanding achievements in literature. 

The stories of Brillantes, previously published in three collections (The Distance to Andromeda and Other Stories, The Apollo Centennial, and On a Clear Day in November Shortly before the Millennium), are well-crafted. Many are characterized by complex philosophical depth and cutting satirical edge—a marriage, it seems, of his Jesuit education and journalistic experience. 

The Collected Stories of Gregorio C. Brillantes is available for ordering through the university press website and through Shopee and Lazada.