Gregorio C. Brillantes

Gregorio Concepcion Brillantes (December 18, 1932 – September 26, 2025) was a Filipino writer best known for his English-language short stories. His 1980 short story “The Apollo Centennial” is particularly considered a "pathbreaking story" in Philippine Science Fiction.

Widely considered one of the most influential voices in Philippine English fiction, he received numerous awards during his lifetime, including the Free Press Literary Awards, the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Gawad CCP Para sa Sining, the writers’ union of the Philippines, the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas' Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, and the Ateneo De Manila University's Tanghal ng Lahi Award; and was inducted to the hall of fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.

Early life and education Brillantes was born on December 18, 1932. He was a native of Camiling, Tarlac. His father was a schoolteacher and his mother a drugstore owner.

Journalistic work and essays Brillantes joined the Free Press' staff in 1961, where he worked alongside other notable writers such as Nick Joaquin, Pete Lacaba, and Kerima Polotan.

The Apollo Centennial (1980) Brillantes' 1980 short story “The Apollo Centennial” is particularly considered a "pathbreaking story" in Philippine Science Fiction. Set in a future where the Marcos dictatorship persisted into the year 1963, it depicts how state-sponsored infrastructure - like the Marcoses' Edifice complex buildings - can influence Filipino subjects to submit to the will of an authoritarian state; but it closes by depicting hope in the freedom offered by sensory experiences not controlled by the state - in this case, the experience of speaking and hearing Kapampangan, which in the story had been replaced by the state-sponsored language Tagilocan. Notably, Brillantes wrote the story at a time when many of the Edifice complex buildings were still newly built or being constructed, as part of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos' cult of personality-style propaganda. The Apollo Centennial, Help, and On a Clear Day in November Shortly Before the Millennium, Stories for a Quarter Century.

Essays Brillantes was an established essayist, covering many of the personalities, events, and movements contemporary to his times.

Initially published in magazines such as the Philippines Free Press, the Asia-Philippines Leader, the Manila Review, and Midweek, his essays are described as setting "new standards for reportage and critical commentary" alongside the works of contemporaries Nick Joaquin and Pete Lacaba.

Many of these essays were later published in three collections of essays: Looking for Rizal in Madrid, Chronicles of Interesting Times, and The Cardinal's Sins, the General's Cross, the Martyr's Testimony and other Affirmations. He is survived by his wife, Lourdes Brillantes, and daughters Patricia, Chi, and Alicia. He later acted as one of the judges of the Philippine Graphic Novel Awards in 2007.