He was a famous Filipino author in English and some of his works are: “Summer Solstice”, “The Woman who had Two Navels” and “May Day Eve.”

He was a recipient of both National Artist of the Philippines in Literature and Ramon Magsaysay Award for Literature and Creative Communications.

He became famous for his “Rosales Saga” novels

A National Artist for Literature who also became the Secretary of Education during the term of Pres. Diosdado Macapagal.

A distinguished poet who was known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rhyme scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks.

He was the author of “Isang Dipang Langit”, Ibong Mandaragit”, “Bayang Malaya” and “Luha ng Buwaya”

He was proclaimed National Artist of the Philippines in Literature in 1990 by then Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino

He was the only one of two faculty members accepted to teach at the University of the Philippines without holding a degree

He is a National Artist of the Philippines in 2003 and currently serves as the chairman of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF).