OLIVERA NIKOLOVA
Olivera Nikolova is one of the most well-known Macedonian female prose writers. She is born in 1936 in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. She graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and worked as an editor and playwright at the Macedonian National Radio and Television.
Her opus consists of numerous works for children and adults.
Her first book Zoki Poki, published in 1963, remains the most popular Macedonian children’s book and a classic piece in the Macedonian literature, published in several foreign languages. Nikolova is a multiple winner of significant literary awards in Macedonia and former Yugoslavia. She won the prestigious Yugoslav Zmaj Award in 1983, for “special accomplishments in the contemporary expression of children’s literature”. Nikolova has collected almost all the important national awards for her novels: the Macedonian Writers’ Association Award “Stale Popov” for Narrow Door (in 1983) and for The Velvet Shroud (for 2015), the 2000 Racin Award for Adam’s Rib and the 2004 Annual Award “Novel of the Year” for Rositsa’s Dolls and in 2019 for The Dog with Sad Look. The Thrombus was the winner of the 1998 Annual Prize of the Macedonian Writers’ Association. The author, however, rejected it as a protest against the malfeasance around the prize and the awarding system in general. She also rejected the alternative solution to preserve the award and pay back the cash award. Nikolova’s works are translated in many languages.
RAJKO GRLIĆ
Rajko Grlić was born in 1947 in Zagreb, Croatia and graduated in film directing at FAMU in Prague, Czech Republic 1971.
As director and scriptwriter he worked on eleven theatrical features. These films were shown in cinemas across all five continents, they were included in competition programmes of leading world festivals, from Cannes onwards, and they received a numerous international awards.
He has worked on five feature films as scriptwriter and on five as producer.
He wrote, directed and produced How to Make Your Movie; An Interactive Film School, which was proclaimed the Best World Multi-media in 1998.
He is Ohio Eminent Scholar in Film at Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA.
DAMIR KARAKAŠ
Damir Karakaš was born in 1967 at the village of Plaščica near Brinje in the Lika area. He worked in Zagreb and Split as a journalist for several years, and as of 2001 he lived in Bordeaux, France; from 2002 to 2007 he lived in Paris where he earned his living playing the accordion. He studied French language at the New Sorbonne University in Paris. He was giving performances and exhibited conceptual works of art. As a teenager he published his caricatures and drawings in numerous newspapers in former Yugoslavia and he also received several caricature awards.
He has published the travel book Bosnians Are Good People (1999), the novel Kombetari (2000), the short story collection Lika Cinema (2001), the novel How I Entered Europa (2004), the short story collection Escimoes (2007), the novel A Wonderful Place for Happiness (2009), the short story collection Colonel Beethoven (2012), the novel Blue Moon (2014), the novel The Memory of the Forest (2016), the novel Celebration (2019) and the novel Reversing Loop (2021), which will be staged at the Split theatre this autumn, directed by Dino Mustafić.
Based on Lika Cinema book, the director Dalibor Matanić has made a movie under the same title, winning a number of awards in Croatia and abroad. His novel Celebration will soon be released as a movie, directed by Bruno Anković, under the mentorship of the Oscar winning Pawel Pawlikowski. His plays are staged in Croatia and abroad (Gavela, Rijeka theatre, Kerempuh, ZKM...).
He is a recipient of significant local and foreign literary awards (“Tportal” Best Novel Award, Fritz, Kočić Pen, Meša Selimović, Premio Itas…). His works have been translated to some ten languages, and his book Escimoes is the first Croatian literary translation into Arabic. As of this this year, it has become part of the obligatory reading list for the eighth grade in the primary schools and the third year in the high schools. He is a father of three daughters. He lives in Zagreb.
BRONJA ŽAKELJ
Bronja Žakelj (1969) has a graduate degree in journalism, but her love of writing disappeared somewhere between the lines of magazine articles and editorial offices of daily newspapers. She found her first job in marketing and today works in banking. Since there is not much space for creativity in the world of finance, and her love of writing had never been entirely forgotten, she decided it was time to write her first book. Belo se pere na devetdeset/Whites Wash at Ninety won the Kresnik Award for the best novel of the year and has been reprinted countless times since its publication in 2018. To date it has sold close to 20,000 copies and has been translated into Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian and Italian with Serbian translation forthcoming.
VLADISLAV BAJAC
Vladislav Bajac is a novelist, story-teller, poet and publisher, born in 1954 in Belgrade. He studied Yugoslav and World Literature at the Faculty of Humanities in Belgrade. He has also worked as a journalist and translator. In 1993 he founded the publishing house Geopoetika.
His books of stories include Europe on the Back of a Bull (1988) and Dream Coasters: Geopoetical Fables (1992, 1995), the latter of which won the "Stevan Pešić Award" for the best book of prose for the year. He has written several outstanding novels: The Book of Bamboo (1989), The Black Box (1993; Borislav Pekić Foundation Award), The Druid from Sindidun (1998; 'Šesti april' Award for the best novel about Belgrade; Branko Ćopić Foundation Award given by the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Bestseller of the Year Award), Escape from Biography (2001; 'Hit Libris' Award), and Europe Express (2003, international 'Golden ring' Award for the overall achievement in literature, Skoplje, Macedonia).
His novel Hamam Balkania was awarded international Balkanika prize for the best novel in the Balkans for 2007/2008, 'Isidora Sekulic' Award for the best book in 2008, as well as 'Hit Liber' Award for the same year.
His poetry and prose has been translated in a dozen foreign languages. His books have been published in France, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Russia, Italy, Slovenia, Greece…, and theater plays have been performed based on his texts. He is the founder and president of Geopoetika Publishing. He won the first “Prozart” award in 2013.
ELENA ALEXIEVA
Elena Alexieva is the author of 15 books, among them the short story collections Readers’ Group 31, Who and Pets Syndicated, as well as the novels Knight, Devil and Death, The Nobel Laureate, and others. As a playwright, she has received the Askeer and Ikar national awards for new Bulgarian drama, as well the Award of the Society of Independent Theatre Critics in Bulgaria. Her plays have been collected in two volumes, Angel Fire (2014) and Victims of Love (2015). She is also winner of the Helikon Prize for modern Bulgarian fiction. Her short story The Fun Fair, which appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Her books have been translated in French, Spanish, Russian and Serbian. She has been a contributor to numerous periodical publications and anthologies in English, French, German, Polish etc.
Elena’s novel Saint Wolf (2019) won the Novel of the Year award of the National Endowment Fund “13 centuries of
Bulgaria” and “The Quill” national prize for fiction of the National Book Centre.
Her latest book is The Breaking of Samsara, a collection of short stories (2021), winner of the Yordan Radichkov National Award for short story collection, as well as of “The Quill” national prize.
She lives in Sofia where she works as a freelance interpreter and writer.
TOMISLAV OSMANLI
Tomislav Osmanli (1956) a play and screenplay writer, a media theoretic, prose writer, film and theatre critic and essayist. Lives and works in Skopje, Macedonia. He is an author of around thirty diverse themed books.
Osmanli has written the first books in his country, dedicated both, to the theory of the Seventh (The Film and the Politics, 1981) and of the Ninth Arts (Comics – a Scripture of Human Image, 1987).
His books and short stories are translated in Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Israel, Montenegro, Egypt, France, Belgium, Argentina, USA.
Osmanli s book of holocaust stories and historic novellas A Lantern for the Festival of Light won the Macedonian national literary prize Prose masters.
His first novel The Twenty-first (2009), won the Best Macedonian Novel prize in 2010, and was, the same year, separately selected a national representative for the Balkanika Prize contest.
The collection of stories "Paradoxicon", 2020 won the best prose book "Ratsin Award".
For his diverse authors work, Tomislav Osmanli won numerous arts, professional and public prizes.
PIJAN SLAVEJ
Pijan Slavej (aka Branislav Nikolov) is a renowned musician, performer, songwriter, poet, singer and frontman of the group Foltin. He was born in 1971 in Bitola. As one of the founders and key members of the band, he has nine studio releases, as well as music for over thirty theatrical performances and several documentary and feature films, including the Oscar nominee "Honeyland", the internationally acclaimed "Secret Ingredient", "Avec L'Amour", "Cash & Marry" etc. He has performed in Croatia, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Russia, Montenegro, England, Lebanon, Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey and Czech Republic. Nikolov has received many recognitions and awards for his creative work. He is, without a doubt, one of the most original and charismatic individuals on Macedonian music scene today, known for his spontaneous, explosive, warm and passionate live performances. Apart from his work with Foltin, he has performed with Macedonian Philharmonic and has two poetry books published. Pijan Slavej is his first solo outing in music and poetry.