Aleksandar Prokopiev was born in 1953 in Skopje, where he has lived for the most of his life, although travels became an equal and useful part of his life a long time ago. He has published a number of collections of stories, essays and haiku poetry, and his stories have found their place in numerous Macedonian and international story selections. His works have been translated into English, French, Italian, Polish, Japanese… and all the languages of the Balkans. His Serbian editions include the story collection Ars amatoria, Anti-Instructions for Personal Use, the novel The Watcher (published by Geopoеtika) and She Likes Chekhov (published by Zograf). The Watcher was the Macedonian candidate for Balkanika and was short listed for this prize. Aleksandar Prokopiev was awarded the Masters of Prose prize for the best prose piece in Macedonia in 2007.