North Macedonian writer wins Carinthia Literature Prize

North Macedonian writer Davor Stojanovski has won the Literature Prize of the Austrian state of Carinthia (Kärnten/Koroška).

The award, which is being given for the first time to an author who was not born in the region and does not write in either of its two official languages — German or Slovenian — will be presented at a ceremony in Klagenfurt/Celovec in December, CE Report quotes MIA.

As part of Carinthia’s annual cultural awards, through which artists in eight different categories receive financial support each year, the state government decided, following a recommendation by the cultural committee, to award this year’s Literature Prize to Macedonian writer Stojanovski.

Davor Stojanovski (Skopje, 1987) is a novelist, poet, playwright and musician. He holds a master’s degree from the Blaže Koneski Department of Macedonian Literature. He has worked as a copywriter and editor and translates from Slovenian into Macedonian.

He won the Utrinski Vesnik Novel of the Year award for “Collectors of Ashes” (2016), was a finalist for the Slávko Janevski Foundation’s Novel of the Year award for “The Nights When We Fell Asleep in Pompeii” (2021), and was nominated for the European Union Prize for Literature in 2020. He was also shortlisted for the Aco Šopov Award of the Macedonian Writers’ Association and represented North Macedonia as a candidate for the Balkanika Literary Award in 2021.

His play “Grace Kelly Does Not Drink Bamboo” (2021) was selected and recommended for translation by the EURODRAM network. He is the author of the introductory essay for the Austrian cultural magazine Brücke in 2026, focusing on “invisible literatures.” He lives in Carinthia/Koroška, Austria, and is a former member of the band Foolish Green.

Photo: Pexels (Free Stock Photos)