- Source: Adonis Durado
Adonis Durado is a Filipino poet, visual journalist, and graphic designer of Cebuano descent. His poetry collection "Who Steps Upon is Stepped Upon" was awarded the 2023 Philippine National Book Awards. He was born in 1975 in Cebu City, Philippines. He is a fine arts graduate from the University of San Carlos. In 2017, he received the Knight Fellowship from the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Visual Communication within Ohio University's Scripps College of Communication.
Literature
Durado has authored numerous books of Cebuano poems. His poetry is known for its earthy, playful, and sometimes reckless nature, capturing the essence of Filipino society's local color, often associated with poverty, violence, and the Filipinos' survival mechanism. His collection, "To Whom It May Not Concern", was a finalist in the 2019 International Book Awards and chosen as one of the best Filipino books of 2017 by CNN Philippines.
In his National Book Award-winning collection, "Who Steps Upon is Stepped Upon," judges praised the poet for his adept use of language, crafting diverse images by drawing inspiration from various visual forms such as postcards, paintings, photographs, and other non-prose texts. The NBA citation states: "Durado's collection represents an exciting evolution in Cebuano poetry, blending poetry with politics and utilizing a more relevant and colloquial language, often described as 'street slang' by Erlinda Alburo. The fertility of inventiveness, imagination, and thought showcased in Durado's work continues to breathe life into Cebuano's writing."
According to National Artist for Literature Resil Mojares:
"Durado’s poetry glories in the richness of folk and popular speech – earthy and playful, reckless and disciplined, vulgar and sly, comic and (as in all good comics) subversive. But it is also poetry that is vitally current and global. Imagine Yoyoy Villame reborn as a poet and graphic artist who fancies De Chirico and Magritte and reads Derrida and Szymborska. Durado is one of the most exciting poets now writing in the country, in any language."
Durado's mastery of the Cebuano language and his ability to evoke emotion through carefully constructed phrases have contributed to the enrichment of the Cebuano literary tradition.
= Works
== Awards
=2023: 1st Prize, Bienvenido Lumbera Prize for Cebuano Poetry
2023: Winner, Philippine National Book Award for Who Steps Upon is Stepped Upon
2022: 1st Prize, Bienvenido Lumbera Prize for Cebuano Poetry
2019: Grand Prize, 39th Cebu Popular Music Festival for "Hugot Pas Huot" (Lyricist)
2019: International Book Award Finalist for To Whom It May Not Concern
2019: Second Prize, 1st Visayan Music Awards for "Balitaw" (Lyricist)
2019: Vicente Ranudo Literary Excellence Award
2017: VisCom Knight Fellowship (Ohio University)
2017: NCCA Writers' Prize
2012: Writer of the Year (Bathalad Inc.)
2002: Faigao Prize (University of San Carlos - Cebuano Studies Center)
2000: Lacaba Prize for Cebuano Poetry
Design
As designer, illustrator, and art director, Durado's work has won international honors from the Society for News Design, the Society of Publication Designers, the Society of Illustrators, the Type Director's Club, the Malofiej Infographics Awards, Communication Arts Magazine, Creative Quarterly Journal, and HOW Design Magazine.
Durado helped launch and redesign more than a dozen magazine and newspaper titles in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, and had served as a speaker to design conferences in the United States, Turkey, Ukraine, UAE, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
His works are featured and cited in the books and periodicals, including The Newspaper Designer's Handbook (7th Edition / McGraw-Hill), All About Mags (Sendpoints Publishing), Creative Anarchy: How to Break the Rules of Graphic Design for Creative Success (How Books).
