Struga, 31 July 2023 (MIA) — Macedonian poet, novelist and publisher Dimitar Bashevski is the winner of this year's Miladinov Brothers Award given by the Struga Poetry Evenings for the best book of poetry published in Macedonian since the last year's poetry festival, organizers announced at a press conference Monday.

Bashevski's poetry collection "Days, Years" (Slovo, 2022) was chosen for the award by a panel of judges consisting of writers Vele Smilevski (chair), Milovan Stefanovski, Slavica Gadzhova Sviderska, and Trajche Stameski (members).

The panel said Bashevski's book was a "significant contribution to the new currents in contemporary Macedonian poetry."

"This is a book of deep life insights, told in apparently simple poetic language," the panel said.

"Bashevski has shown that his poetic verticals, whose roots are in the last century, still feature a creative vitality, a vibrant and succulent poetic speech, and suggestive and current poetic themes," they said, adding that his poems "gather his life and creative experiences between the covers of a single book" and that the author's "poetic outbursts represent a dense but also a distilled and luminous sublimate of layered meanings and messages."

The shortlist for the 2023 Brothers Miladinov Award included "Two Seas" by Josip Kocev, "Honey and Youth" by Gordana Mihailova Boshnakoska, "Film Poems" by Dejan Trajkoski, and "On the Tip of My Tongue" by Katica Kjulavkova.

Dimitar Bashevski (b. 1943, Gjavato near Bitola) graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. He is the author of a dozen books including "The Well," which won the Novel of the Year Award in 2002. From 2000 to 2006, he was president of the Macedonian PEN Center. 

His works include the novels "Stranger" (1969), "Splinter" (1974), "No Death While the Bell Tolls" (1980), "The Sarajanovo Carnation" (1990), "The Brother" (2007), "Windows" (2013); and the poetry books "The House of Life" (1987), "Temporal Stay" (1995), "Cornerstone" (2005), "Reading from My Hand" (2010) and "The Turnings" (2016).

He has won many awards, including the October 11 Award, the November 13 Award, the St. Clement of Ohrid Award, the Racin Award, and the Vancho Nikoleski Award.

He will be presented with the Miladinov Brothers Award during the upcoming SPE festival, at the close of its traditional Bridges poetry reading. mr/