Nikola Madzirov

(poet, essayist, translator) was born in 1973 in R. Macedonia, in the family of war refugees from the Balkan Wars. His book Relocated Stone (2007) was given the East European Hubert Burda poetry award and the most prestigious Macedonian poetry prize Miladinov Brothers at Struga Poetry Evenings. Other awards include the DJS world poetry prize in China, Studentski Zbor award for best debut in Macedonia and Aco Karamanov award for the book Somewhere Nowhere. The contemporary jazz composer and collaborator of Björk and Lou Reed, Oliver Lake, has composed music based on Madzirov's poems. Madzirov was granted several international fellowships: International Writing Program (IWP) at University of Iowa in USA; DAAD and LCB in Berlin or Marguerite Yourcenar in France. German weekly magazine "Der Spiegel" compared him to Tomas Tranströmer, while Pulitzer prize winner Mark Strand wrote: Madzirov's poetry is like discovering a new planet in the solar system of the imagination. His poetry has been translated into forty languages and his book in English, Remnants of Another Age, was published in USA, UK and Australia.