(Biography)

 He is a poet, art critic, professor of English and Comparative

Literature at the Ateneo de Manila and curator of its art museum.
He was born on April 29, 1932 in Manila. In 1954, he finished his
BA in Education and received the Joseph Mulry Award for Literary
Excellence at the Ateneo de Manila University, and in 1957, on a
Fulbright-Smith-Mundt fellowship, he obtained his M.A. in English at
the State University of Iowa where he enjoyed an International
Scholarship in Creative Writing and attended Paul Engle’s Writers’
Workshop. He joined the Ateneo faculty in 1958, and since 1960
was curator of the Ateneo University Art Gallery. In 1961, he was
one of Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM Awardee for Literature).
At the Ateneo, he held the Henry Lee Erwin Chair in Creative
Writing and the FEBTC/Jose B. Fernandez Chair for art research. In addition to the
extensive local and international recognition he received for his work in the arts and letters,
Torres was art columnist in The Manila Times and SIM. He has also been a member of several
committees on art exhibits across the globe.

 Torres’ works on art include St. Joseph the Worker Chapel (1968), The Drawings of Ang
Kiukok (1976), Jeepney (1979), and Kayamanan: 77 Paintings from the Central Bank
Collection (1981). Awarded often at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, his
poems have been collected in Angels and Fugitives (1966), Shapes of Silence (1972), and The
Smile on Smokey Mountain & Other Poems (1991).

“To some the meaning of life can literally be just finding some money for the next cig. That’s all their life
consists of, all that matters in their life and the only thing their life means to them. So i must say to each
person alive, it means something personal to that specific person. Yet there is a part to the meaning of life
that seems very impersonal, that will conclude in a crescendo of what this life meant to you, in actually I
speak of the judgment seat of Christ...and when we all go before Him, what the meaning of life was to us will
mean very little compared to how much His life meant to the Father. At that point it’s obvious that life means
a lot when you’re willing to lay it down, so someone can start afresh. The meaning of life is to see it from
everyone’s perspective and yet still perceive which ones true. To be willing to do whatever it takes for the
person nearest you to be willing to take off the vale that hides their eyes from the truth has immense value.
Life loses much meaning when you’re not willing to lose your life to make others’ lives safe havens for the next
group of sailor. This life is a sea unease, the next one is what you pleased. Only one way to safety, the King
Jesus...His kingdoms peace will never end.”