Attendance at a writers' workshop and a course under novelist N.V.M. Gonzalez led Lacambra-Ayala to explore her talent for writing in forms other than journalism. Her first collection, Sunflower Poems (1960), consisted of thirty one poems printed on chipboard used to pack newsprint rolls. Encouraged by its favorable reception by fellow writers and by critics, she published another collection of thirty poems, Ordinary Poems (1967). American critic Leonard Casper praised her poems for their emotional intensity, which he traced to the poet's deliberate diminution and scope.
A long time resident of Davao City, Lacambra-Ayala has committed herself to drawing together and publicizing the works of artists of that region. Herself a visual artist whose works have been exhibited both in Mindanao and Manila, she is the editor of the Road Map Series, a folio on art and poetry featuring local writers. Number 21 of the series was a collection of her essays, This Side of Bananas: Ten Familiar Essays (1985). Her Pieces of String and Other Stories (1984) is a collection of seventeen prize winning short stories. Though these volumes demonstrate the considerable range of her writing skills, Lacambra-Ayala's reputation is moist secure in the area of poetry, as exemplified in Poor Boy Poems and Others (1987), published as volume 2 of the Road Map Series. In 1998 the University of the Philippines Press published two works of Lacambra-Ayala back to back in one volume: Friends: The Adventures of a Professional Amateur, an autobiographical narrative, and Camels and Shapes of Darkness in a Time of Olives, a collection of forty-seven new poems.
At home, she was wife to fellow writer-painter Jose V, Ayala Jr. It was under these circumstances that she began to write poetry. 'Actually my poetry was a nocturnal activity taking the place of evening prayers. It was an attempt to tie together, to rationalize all the internal and external happenings of one's life into a sensible whole. It was a try at preserving my own identity and sanity in my given space, role and environment.' The mother of six children (Joey, David, Cynthia Alexander, Monica ko, Fernando, Laura Elizaga), Tita Lacambra-Ayala writes poems that "nail into verse" the realities of domestic life, a feat she repeats again and again in her poetry. A particularly poignant example is "The Dragon."
She won the Palanca in the English Short Story Category “Everything” (Third Prize, 1967), and for Poetry in English “A Filigree of Seasons” (Second Prize). She also garnered the following awards and citations: Gawad Balagtas Awardee for Poetry in English (1991), Manila Critics Circle Special Citation for Road Map Series (1989), Philippine Free Press Awardee for Short Story (1970, Third Prize), Focus Philippines Poetry Awardee, Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas UMPIL Achievement Award (1991), and National Fellow for Poetry, UP Creative Writing Center (1994-95).
Lacambra-Ayala is a founding member of the Davao Writers Guild, and is the mother of famous songwriter-musicians Joey Ayala and Cynthia Alexander and poet Fernando (Pido) Ayala.
I highly appreciated Tita Lacambra-Ayala works. She’ve done so much to our literature as a Filipino. We must be proud our native writer as she had contributed so much in our country. We must be proud of our own country. We the 21st Century youths have nothing to shame on it instead we must embraced on it.
