The program of the 14th ‘PRO-ZA Balkan’ International Literary Festival comprises three festival evenings and four additional events; the festival opens Sunday at 8:00 p.m. at the Museum of the City of Skopje.
The ‘Prozart’ Award—presented to a distinguished author for their contribution to the development of literature in the Balkans—has been awarded this year to the Serbian writer Dragan Velikić, one of the most significant, widely translated, and recognizable contemporary Serbian authors. He will receive the award in person at the festival’s closing ceremony at the Museum of the City of Skopje on September 15.
In addition to Velikić, guests at the 14th edition of the festival will include Albanian writer Diana Çuli, Bulgarian writer and screenwriter Nikolay Terziyski, Slovenian novelist Gabriela Babnik Ouattara, Irish-British filmmaker and producer Mike Downey, Serbian writer Hristina Radović Andrić, and Greek psychologist and children’s author Zinovia Vasileiadi, as well as local writer Blazhe Minevski.
The ‘Skopje Fellowship’ program will also take place this year for the 13th time. Publishers, literary agents, and publishing professionals from Greece, Bulgaria, and Albania will be guests of this significant program—one of the few of its kind in the region. Visiting Skopje will be: Efi Riza-Skifa, founder and publishing manager of the Greek publishing house Enastron; Manol Peykov, owner and CEO of the Bulgarian publishing house Janet 45 and founder of the Sofia Literary Agency; Rajmonda Hida, Director of External Relations and Copyrights at the Albanian publishing house Fan Noli; Gergana Pancheva, Executive Director of the Sofia Literary Agency; Aristea Iliopoulou, Head of Publishing and editor at Enastron; and Rexhep Hida, Director of Fan Noli.
The ‘PRO-ZA Balkan’ international literary festival is organized by the Skopje-based publishing house Prozart Media. Supporters of “PRO-ZA Balkan” include: the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Traduki, the Delegation of the European Union and Europe House, the Embassy of Greece, the Bulgarian Cultural and Information Center in Skopje, the Embassy of Slovenia, the Cinematheque, the Museum of the City of Skopje, and the Umno.mk website.
