PH research group honors poet Abad
AWARD- WINNING poet and scholar Gemino Abad and nine other academics earned outstanding achievement awards from the National Research Council of the Philippines ( NRCP)
During its 85th General Membership - ence at the Philippine International Convention Center ( PICC) in Pasay City on March 14, NRCP recognized Abad for his “immense contribution to the and literary criticism.”
According to the council, Abad elevated the status of Philippine literature and creative writing through the quality and depth of his works.
Calling the 79- year- old writer an literary critic, and literary historian,” NRCP said in a statement that “his numerous works showcase his exceptional genius.”
These works “have also earned him the esteem of universities as literature professor par excellence, and among foreign universities as a Filipino ‘ poet of note,’” it added.
NRCP also acknowledged Abad, a professor emeritus at the University of the Philippines ( UP), as member emeritus for its humanities division.
Honored with the poet- scholar are Maria Andrea Santiago, for her contributions to education; Erna Allorado, for pharmaceutical sciences; Ephrime Metillo, for biological sciences; Michael Angelo Promentilla, for engineering and industrial research; Florencia Palis, for agriculture; Evangeline Amor, for chemical sciences; Gemma Narisma, for earth and space sciences; Mildred Padilla, for veterinary medicine; and Priscelina Legasto, for humanities.
NRCP is the research arm of the Department of Science and Technology ( DoST).
Poet of note
The
council’s award
is the
latest Abad has received in his career. He won the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature for his poetry collections “The Space Between” in 1976, “Counterclockwise” in 1980, and “The Outer Clearing” in 1983.
He also won the Manila Critics Circle’s National Book Award for his poetry collection “Poems and Parables” in 1988; the poetry anthologies “Man of Earth” in 1989, “A Native Clearing” in 1993, and “A Habit of Shores” in 1999; and his personal anthologies “A Makeshift Sun” in 2002 and “In Ordinary Time” in 2004.
His other books include “Fugitive Emphasis;” “In Another Light;” “Orion’s Belt and Other Writings;” “Father and Daughter,” on which he collaborated with his daughter and prize- winning children’s book author Cyan Abad- Jugo; and “Who’s Afraid of Ching Dadufalza?”
In 1996, the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas ( Umpil, or the Writers Union of the Philippines) bestowed on Abad the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas— the group’s lifetime achievement award— for his contributions to poetry and literary criticism.
In 2009, Abad won the Feronia Prize in Rome under the foreign be honored.