VENKO ANDONOVSKI

Venko Andonovski was born in Kumanovo in 1964. He is the most widely read Macedonian writer and the most frequently performed Macedonian playwright of the past fifteen years. He is a novelist, playwright, and literary theorist, and the author of thirty-three books across various genres. He has received all of Macedonia’s major awards for prose, drama, and literary criticism. He is the recipient of the “Racin Award,” the Utrinski Vesnik Award for Novel of the Year, the “Stale Popov” Award, and the “Balkanika” Award for the best Balkan book of the year.

His novel The Navel of the World won the international “Balkanika” Award (Best Book in the Balkans for 2001) and the “Jugra” Award (Best Novel from the Slavic Literatures translated into Russian, Russia, 2011). The novel sold more than 14,000 copies in Macedonia, while The Witch sold 10,000 copies. Andonovski was shortlisted alongside thirty-three other writers from around the world, including several Nobel laureates, for the Tolstoy Award. His plays have been long-running hits in Macedonia. Candide in Wonderland was performed for ten years at the Drama Theatre in Skopje. He has been writing columns for Macedonian newspapers continuously for thirty years. His works have been translated into twelve languages.

His major works include: Frescoes and Grotesques (stories), Alphabet for the Disobedient (novel), The Navel of the World (novel), The Witch (novel), The Mathematician’s Daughter (novel), Revolt in the Nursing Home (play), The Slavic Ark (play), Candide in Wonderland (play), Dog Genetics (The Glembays) (play), Lead on the Pillow (play), There Is One for Everyone (comedy), The Coward’s Master (comedy), Citizen Job (play), and others.