Project Description
Natasa Saroska (Skopje, 1979) Macedonian poet, writer, translator, professor, journalist and essayist, lived and worked in Paris, Brussels, Milan, Rome, Stuttgart, Barcelona and Lisbon. She graduated in Italian philology and Comparative literature in Skopje. She holds a Master’s degree in Literary, media and cultural studies from the University of Bergamo, Perpignan and Lisbon, dealing with the works of Pier Paolo Pasolini. She defended her doctoral thesis in anthropology at the same university in Bergamo, at the Sorbonne Nova Paris 3 and at the Karls Eberhard University in Tübingen. She taught at the University of Southeast Europe Max Van Der Stul. She is currently Adjunct professor at the Global American University Schiller in Heidelberg and a non-resident Researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies of Southeast Europe in Rijeka.
She has published the poetry books: The Blue Room (1999), Skin (2013), He Pulled Me with an Invisible Thread (2014), Living Water (2017), Coccyx (2019) and the novel Tramontana (2021), as well as numerous essays in international magazines (including Doppiozero and Nuova Prosa in Milan, Transmidia in Rio de Janeiro), academic papers and columns. Her book Skin has been published in the United States and in Italy, while the poetry book Coccyx has been published in Kosovo, in Honduras (e-edition) and in Italy by the publisher Interno Poesia in 2020. Her poem Doll on Strings was published in the bilingual Spanish and English international anthology against abuse of minors as part of the Scream International poetry festival. Among the festivals she participated in is the festival in Medellin in Colombia, Ars Poetica in Bratislava, Poesiefestival in Berlin, Parole Spalancate in Genoa and the Sha’ar festival in Tel Aviv, as well as various literary readings in several cities in the Balkans. Her poetry has been translated into more than 15 world languages and published in several international anthologies and magazines, including the top literary reviews in Argentina, Italy, Serbia, Chile, Mexico, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Greece, Bulgaria. Israel, Slovakia and Portugal. At the international poetry festival in Struga, she has been nominated several times for the National poetry award Miladinov Brothers. In 2020 she received the Don Luigi de Liegro award for special merits for creation in the Italian language, the Guida Editore recognition for the best poem written in the Italian language as well as a nomination for the best translation for the auto-translation of her poetry book Coccyx published by the Indiscreto Foundation of Florence and for the best first translation of the children’s book Pinocchio by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001. Her poetry readings are performative recitals with vocal, musical and theatrical interpretation, dance and interaction with the audience. Namely, Sardzoska performed in the Doge’s Palace in Genoa, in the Arab-Jewish Theater Yaffa in Tel Aviv, in the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, in the Gallery of Modern Art in Bratislava, in the National Art Gallery in Skopje, in the National Library of the city Sofia, in the Old Town Cultural Center in Belgrade as well as in the Revoltella Museum in Trieste. She is an author of many literary translations from Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Catalan. She has translated over 100 foreign authors, including Pasolini, Collodi, Carducci, Tabucchi, Pessoa, Saramago, Camoes, Carneiro, Couto, Boyunga, Carvalho, Braga, Montale and many others. She edited the translation of the anthology of the Italian hermetic poets into the Macedonian language. She cooperated with the Italian Embassy in Skopje, organizing the evening of Italian poetry and wine Il vino è la poesia della terra, as well as with the French Embassy and the French Institute in Skopje in organizing the poetry evening Les rivages de l’exil. Together with Academician Katica Kulavkova, she edited the anthology of Macedonian poetry published in Colombia with the title of her poem Cartography of Fire.