Poetry. Fiction. Asian American Studies. THE ANCHORED ANGEL: SELECTED WRITINGS BY JOSÉ GARCIA VILLA reintroduces the work of the celebrated writer to the United States. At the height of his career, Villa's writings earned him prizes, fellowships, and lavish praise from some of the greatest literary luminaries of the day. Yet his work has been out of the public eye for more than thirty years and out of print for more than fifteen. Although named a National Artist in the Philippines where he was born, Villa remains largely unknown in the United States today.

"THE ANCHORED ANGEL is a marvelous reintroduction to the work of one of the greatest pioneers of Asian American literature. For José Garcia Villa was our bitter, narcissistic angel of both late Modernism and early post-colonialism, an inventive, luminous intelligence full of sweet song and possessed of an unforgettably unique, bilious presence of a legend. Like the César Vallejo of Trilce, Villa could be abstract, elusive, eccentric, yet capable of a lyric passion so intense, both heart and throat ache to intone his strophes. Editor Eileen Tabios and the contributing essayists have accomplished a literary treasure, an archive, and a clear-eyed act of literary homage to an important figure in twentieth-century world poetry."
—Garrett Hongo The Anchored Angel: Selected Writings by Jose Garcia Villa

Author City: MANILA PHI

José Garcia Villa was born in Manila, Philippines, in 1908, and emigrated to the United States in 1929. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico in 1932, then moved to New York for graduate study at Columbia University. Scribner's published a collection of stories called Footnote to Youth in 1933. In 1933, Villa dedicated himself exclusively to poetry and the experimental opportunities poetry promised. His first collection, Have Come, Am Here, was published in 1942 by Viking, and won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. His next book, Volume Two, was published in 1949 by New Directions, where he served as associate editor from 1949-1951. He went on to publish two more volumes of poetry in the United States—Selected Poems and New (1958: McDowell, Obolensky) and Appassionata (1979: King and Cowen)—and a number of books in the Philippines.

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