Nikola Madžirov

Nikola Madzirov (poet, essayist, translator) was born in 1973 in Strumica, in the family of refugees from the Balkan Wars. When he was 18, the collapse of Yugoslavia prompted a shift in his sense of identity – as a writer he reinvented himself in a country which felt new but was still nourished by deeply rooted historical traditions. His poems have been translated into more than forty languages. For his 2007 book Relocated Stone he was given the international Hubert Burda poetry award for writers born in Eastern Europe, as well as the most prestigious Macedonian poetry award Miladinov Brothers at the Struga Poetry Evenings. Other accolades include the Studentski Zbor award for the best poetry debut and Xu Zhimo Silver Leaf award for European poetry at King’s College, Cambridge in UK. American composers Oliver Lake, Michael League, Becca Stevens and Du Yun have composed music based on Madzirov’s poems. He was granted several international fellowships: International Writing Program (IWP) at University of Iowa; DAAD in Berlin; Marguerite Yourcenar in France and Civitella Ranieri in Italy. He edited the Macedonian edition of the Anthology of World’s Poetry: XX and XXI Century. He is one of the coordinators of the Berlin-based international poetry network Lyrikline (https://www.lyrikline.org/en/home/), and a 2023 member of the jury for the world’s largest international prize for a single book of poetry, The Griffin Poetry Prize.

 

 

Photo by Thomas Kierok