He is known for his widely anthologized short story "How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife," the main story in the collection How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife and Other Short Stories, which won first prize in the Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1940.
His stories "Midsummer" and "Heat" were published in Tondo, Manila by the Prairie Schooner.
Most of Arguilla's stories depict scenes in Barrio Nagrebcan, Bauang, La Union, where he was born. His bond with his birthplace, forged by his dealings with the peasant folk of Ilocos, remained strong even after he moved to Manila, where he studied at the University of the Philippines, finished his BS in Education in 1933, and became a member and later the president of the U.P. Writer's Club and editor of the university's Literary Apprentice.
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Most of Arguilla's stories depict scenes in Barrio Nagrebcan, Bauang, La Union where he was born in 1911. His bond with his birthplace, forged by his dealings with the peasant folk of Ilocos, remained strong even after he moved to Manila where he studied at the University of the Philippines, finishing an Education degree in 1933. He became a member and later the president of the U.P. Writer's Club and editor of the university's Literary Apprentice.
In the 1936 short story contest sponsored by the Philippine Free Press magazie, Arguilla won first place with his story entitled "Epilogue to reconciliation". He later become a creative writing teacher at the University of Manila and worked at the Bureau of Public Welfare as managing editor of the bureau's publication, Welfare Advocate, until the outbreak of World War II in 1943.
An agent of the famous Marking's Guerillas, Arguilla secretely organized a guerilla intelligence unit against the Japanese invaders during the war. While he held an important position on the Board of Censors and in the Japanese propaganda network, he gave vital information and military secrets to the Filipino Guerillas. In 1944, he was captured, tortured, and executed by the Japanese army at Fort Santiago.
