Project Description
IGOR ISAKOVSKI (1970 – 2014), poet, prose writer, translator, editor. BA in World and Comparative Literature, Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia. MA in Gender and Culture, CEU, Budapest, Hungary. He was the founder and director of the Cultural Institution Blesok where he worked as the editor-in-chief from 1998 until 2014.
Published books: Letters (1991, novel), Black Sun (1992, poetry), Explosions, Pregnant Moon, Eruptions… (1993, short stories), Vulcan – Earth – (1995, poetry), – Sky (1996, 2000, poetry), Engravings, Blues Phone Booth (2001, prose etchings), Sandglass (2002, short stories), Way Down in the Hole (poetry, 2004), Swimming in the Dust (2005, 2010, novel, award Prose Masters2005), Blues Phone Booth II (2006, prose etchings, awarded 2007 annual prize for best visual-graphic design of a printed book), Interning for a Saint (poetry, 2008), The Night Is Darkest Before the Dawn (poetry, 2009, unique award winner of the 4th Belgrade Poetry and Book Festival in 2010), Vulcano – Earth – Sky (poetry, 2010), Love Poem (poetry, 2011), Death Has Seaweed Hair (poetry, 2013) So Yes (poetry, 2015).
Selections and translations in other languages: – Sky (poetry in English, 1996, 2000), Sejanje smeha (Sowing of Laughter, selected poetry in Serbian and Macedonian, 2003), I & Tom Waits (selected poetry in English and Macedonian, 2003), Sandglass (short stories in English, 2003), I to je život (That’s Life Too, new and selected poetry, published in Montenegro, 2007), Iz bliskov in ognja (From Glitters and Fire, new and selected poetry in Slovenian, 2011),Pjesčani sat (Sandglass, short stories in Croatian, 2012), Dlanovi puni srče / Дланки полни срча (new and selected poetry in Serbian and Macedonian, 2013), Светлината ве чека на рецепција / The Light Awaits You at Reception (selected and new poetry in Macedonian and English, 2013).
Isakovski edited four anthologies (the latest is the bilingual Six Macedonian Poets, published by ARC publications, UK, 2011) and two CD-ROMs.
Translated poetry, prose, and essays from and into Macedonian, English, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, and from Slovenian into Macedonian. There are more than 60 published books in his translation into Macedonian.
His poetry and prose works were translated into sixteen languages and published in about twenty countries. He was included in a vast number of selections and anthologies in Macedonia and abroad.