Antonio R. Enriquez passed away on 14 June 2014 in Cagayan de Oro City at the age of 77.
His wife, Joy Viernes Enriquez, only daughter Vanessa and husband Ulysses, and grandchildren Anton Vladimir, Julien, Nikka Eloise, Dominique Ysabelle and Andrei Joshua, request the pious reader to pray for his peaceful journey to the afterlife.
Wake is being held at Palermo Chapel, Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes, Gen. N. Capistrano Street, Cagayan de Oro City. Final vigil and necrological services will be held on Wednesday, 18 June 2014 after which his remains will be cremated at Forest Lake.
Antonio R. Enriquez won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Grand Prize for Literature in 1982 for first novel “Surveyors of the Liguasan Marsh” and again in 1993 for his third novel, “Subanons”. He previously won First Prize in the Short Story Category for “Spots on their Wings” (1973) and Third Prize for the same category for “The Icon” (1969). The Palanca Award is considered the Philippines most prestigious award for literature.
His second collection of short stories, Dance a White Horse to Sleep and Other Stories (UQP, Queensland, Australia, 1977) was the first work of fiction by a Filipino writer writing in his own country to break international publication.
In 1996, he was recognized with the “Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas” Award for Fiction in English by the Unyon ng Mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL, or the Writers Union of the Philippines). In 2000, he was presented by the Thai Royal Family with the “Southeast Asia Writers Award” (S.E.A. Write) in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2013, he was recognized by the Ateneo de Zamboanga University with the “Fr. Eduardo Hontiveros SJ Award for Culture and Arts”.
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