We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Pedro Lopes Adão. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Pedro below.
Hi Pedro, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I started my literary career when I was fifteen: I was a boy, I lived more in dreams than in reality, motivated by reading existential and decadent poems and good philosophy books. Some of these works shaped me and I feel like I started at the right time. If I’m not mistaken, the first publication was at sixteen, in a magazine, with an essay on Vergílio Ferrreira.
There is often this question of whether it was early or late, and the incumbents’ biased mimicry rules there. I think everyone has a path – many good writers started in old age, and that’s not reprehensible: art has to be taken seriously, therefore, it’s a state of mind, and it arrives when it needs to arrive.
Pedro, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I never say it was just hard work, because I’m a firm believer in luck. I know a handful of excellent contemporary artists who haven’t been as lucky as me.
If I had to summarize and tell you how I got into this industry, I would say that a good editor, Jorge Reis-Sá, very loved in Portugal, when he read my first manuscript, said that there was still a lot of work ahead, but that he would publish it; and the opinions of sponsors were in line, so it didn’t take long for the book to stop being mine and become yours.
Since then, of course, I’ve evolved – Jorge wasn’t wrong. I did impressive coordination and review work: I celebrated poets’ centenaries and printed unique materials from authors’ collections, as well as importing material from other countries to boost Portuguese intelligence. My teams, in these collective projects, are always excellent, which delivers phenomenal results to the reader: there is no prejudice towards the writing, no censorship, if something has to be said, so be it, I like literature to tell the truth.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Yes! I made the decision, at the beginning of this year, to create a Foundation with the aim of awarding an artist with a creative grant by 2030.
I am aware of future difficulties, however, the state of art financing in Portugal remains precarious. I vowed to change that.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
To know that my words may have saved someone from the abyss.
I write mostly sad things, even in a philosophical context. The hidden message is always: How much pain do you harbor, piece of art?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wook.pt/autor/pedro-lopes-adao/5878028
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedro-lopes-ad%C3%A3o-334906225/?originalSubdomain=pt
- Other: https://penclubeportugues.org/authors/pedro-adao/
