#1
STEPHAN HERTMANS (Belgium)
Stefan Hertmans (1951) is among the brightest Belgian literary stars – author, poet and essayist from the Flemish speaking area.
His biography reads like a novel: from a teacher to a jazz musician, from a university career to a writer, from a Belgian state laureate to a huge international celebrity.
The novel "War and Turpentine" won the ECI Literature Prize and the Flemish Prize for Literature and Culture, and was nominated for the Booker International Prize in 2017.
Hertmans' poetry is taught at the Art Institute and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent.
In 2016, Hertmans received the prestigious E. di Peron for the historical novel "Alternate Forever".
Back in 1983, the author visited Macedonia for the first time as a participant in the Struga evenings of poetry, and exactly 30 years later he came to meet his new readers.
We are glad that the reception of Hertmans' award-winning books in Macedonia, "War and Turpentine" and "Forever Stranger", prompted us to shout him out on BookStar.
#2
ANJA MUGERLI (Slovenia)
Anja Mugerli (1984) is a Slovenian author, proofreader and editor. She graduated with a degree in Slovenian language and a master's degree in performance studies and creative writing.
In 2017, she published the novel "Spovin", which received a nomination for the Kresnik Award (2018).
In 2019, Mugerly sold the film rights to "Spovine" and was selected for the First Novel Festival in Kiel, Germany.
In 2021, the short story collection "Bee Family" is shortlisted for the "New Place" award and receives the European Union Literature Prize.
She also writes plays, two of which won prizes at an international competition in Italy. She lives in Nova Gorica, on the border between Slovenia and Italy.
Mugerli's works have been translated into various languages (Croatian, Italian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, etc.), and the Macedonian translation of "Bee Family" is available in Antolog bookstores.
#3
FRANCIS KIRPS (Luxembourg)
Francis Kirps (1971) is a Luxembourgish author, satirist and journalist.
Since the 90s he published poetry and prose in various anthologies and magazines in Germany and Luxembourg.
In 2000 and 2001 he was awarded by the Concours Littéraire National for a short story and a poem.
In the early 2000s, Kypris entered the poetry slam scene. He has participated in over five hundred slam and reading stage performances.
Founding member, publisher and editor of the Bonn literary magazine EXOT from 2005 to 2014.
Founder and Vice President of the new Luxembourg Writers Association A:LL Schreftsteller*innen.
In 2020, he received the Servais Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature for the book "Mutations".
Intertextual and genre-hybrid, "Mutations" is a must-read for all lovers of literary experiments. The book is published by Antholog and is available in our bookstores.
#4
SOPHIE HANNAH (United Kingdom)
Sophie Hannah (1971) is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author. She has been published in fifty-one languages, and her books have sold millions of copies worldwide.
She is the author of the new series of novels-sequels with Hercule Poirot, and in the writing process she cooperates with the family of the author Agatha Christie.
In 2014, with the approval of Agatha Christie's family and legal heirs, Sophie Hanna published a new Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, which was a bestseller in more than fifteen countries.
The musical "The Mystery of Mr. E," written together with her friend and composer Annette Armitage, is currently being filmed. The premiere of the film is in December 2023.
With her help, a master's program in writing crime novels was launched at the University of Cambridge, where she is the main lecturer and subject leader.
Hannah is also the founder of the DREAM AUTHOR writer coaching program (www.dreamauthorcoaching.com).
There are many authors in the world LIKE Agatha Christie, but only one is the NEW Agatha Christie and she is coming to Skopje!!
#5
LIDIJA DIMKOVSKA (Macedonia)
Lidija Dimkovska was born in 1971 in Skopje. She is a poet, novelist, essayist and translator.
She studied comparative literature at the University of Skopje and received her doctorate in Romanian literature at the University of Bucharest.
She has taught Macedonian language and literature at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures in Bucharest, and world literature at the University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
Since 2001, he has been living in Ljubljana, where he works as a writer and translator from Romanian and Slovenian into the Macedonian language.
She participated in numerous international literary festivals and was in writer's residencies in Iowa, Berlin, Graz, Split, Vienna, Salzburg, Tirana and London.
Dimkovska is one of the most awarded authors of our spaces. She is the recipient of the "Stale Popov" prize of the DPM, the German "Hubert Burda" prize, the Romanian "Poesis" and "Tudor Arghezi" prizes, the European "Petru Krdu" prize, the Literature Prize of the European Union and many others.
Dimkovska is one of the key authors of the contemporary Macedonian literary scene. He has written six poetry collections and three prose works, of which the novel "Reserve Life" experienced the greatest fame. Her latest novel "Unique Social Security Number" is also a must read.
#6
BRANKO ROSIĆ (Serbia)
Branko Rosić (1964), born in Belgrade, is a Serbian writer and graduate mechanical engineer with an unusual biography.
He played in the cult punk band "Urban Guerrilla",, and later in the electro group Berliner Strasse. . He conducted interviews with important figures from the Yugoslav and world rock'n'roll and cultural scene, including Stephen Patrick Morrissey (The Smiths), Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Yoko Ono, Hanif Kureishi, Irvine Welsh, Jo Nesbø, Jean-Paul Gaultier.
He participated in the writing of "The Lexicon of YU Mythology", and his texts have also been published in popular magazines such as "Playboy", "El", "L'European", "Cosmopolitan", "Max" and "National Geographic".
His novel "Tomorrow they announce the final clarification" will soon receive a TV adaptation.
Rosić is one of the first Serbian musicians who gave an interview to the famous English newspaper "New Musical Express".
He was presented to the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a "punk in the guise of a journalist." Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the British Empire Medal for outstanding contribution to the promotion and advancement of cultural ties between Great Britain and Serbia.
Antolog recently published the first Macedonian translation of Rosić's new novel, "The Arrival of the Matador", which is full of topicality and fervor. The book is available in our bookstores.
#7
DRAGO GLAMUZINA (Croatia)
Drago Glamuzina is a Croatian writer and editor born in Vrgorac in 1967.
He graduated in comparative literature and philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.
He worked as a journalist in "Vjesnik" and as an editor in "Nasional" magazine. From 2003 to 2011, he was the chief editor in the "Profil" publishing house, and since 2011, an editor in the "VBZ" publishing house from Zagreb.
He is the program director of the Vrisak Literary Festival in Rijeka.
Glamuzina writes poetry and prose, and five of his books have been translated into Macedonian: "Mesari", "That's all", "Everest", "Three" and "The Second Law of Thermodynamics".
His poetry book "Mesari" received the Vladimir Nazor Award for Book of the Year and the Quirin Award for the best collection of poems by an author under 35 years of age.
Glamuzina's novel "Three" receives the T-portal award for the best Croatian novel of the year.
To get to know this Croatian contemporary author better, read "The Second Law of Thermodynamics" which, through the perspectives of several middle-aged people, covers all the intimate aspects of everyday life. The book is like a contemporary Plato's Feast or Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron.
#8
LUCIE FAULEROVÁ (Czech Republic)
Lucie Faulerová (1989) is a Czech writer, editor and screenwriter. She graduated in Czech studies at Palacky University in Olomouc.
Her debut novel "Dust Collectors" aroused massive interest among readers and critics immediately after its publication.
Faulerová was nominated for the 2017 Magnesia Litera Award for Prose (the highest annual literary award in the Czech Republic), and the Jiri Orten Award for authors under thirty.
With prominent Czech conceptual artist Katerzyna Šeda, Lucie co-authored the book BRNOX — A Guide to the Bronx of Brno (2016) for which she won the 2016 Magnesia Litera Journalism Award.
In 2020, Lucie publishes the novel Death Girl, which in 2021 received a nomination for the Magnesia Litera Prize for Prose and won the European Union Prize for Literature.
The award-winning novel "Death Maiden" covers complex themes, but the main point of reference is the longing for freedom.
#9
MILJENKO JERGOVIĆ (Croatia, BiH)
Miljenko Jergović (1966) is a Bosnian-Croatian writer and journalist.
He is one of the most significant figures on the regional public scene. His short stories and novels have been translated into thirty languages.
Jergović is the winner of numerous domestic and foreign literary awards. His short story collection "Sarajevo Marlborough" won the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize, and his poetry collection "Warsaw Observatory" won the Goran Prize for Young Poets and the Mak Dizdar Prize.
In 2003, for "Mama Leone" he won the prestigious Premio Grinzane Cavour for the best book by a foreign author in Italy.
In 2012, he received the Central European Angelus award for the book "Hearts sing at Dusk on Dukhovden", and in 2018 he won the Georg Dehio literary award.
Jergović is one of the most widely read authors. In our bookstores, you can find his famous novels "Volga, Volga" and "Windfoot Babukic and his time".
#10
Najat El Hachmi (Spain)
BOOKSTAR AWARD 2023!
Najat El Hachmi (1979) is a Moroccan-Spanish writer whose work is dominated by themes of identity, migration, women's rights and the meaning of and being a woman in a conservative environment.
She studied Arabic literature at the University of Barcelona. She began writing when she was twelve, initially for fun and later as a way to shed a different light on her multicultural reality.
Hachmi's debut novel "The Last Patriarch" (2008) won one of the most prestigious awards in Catalonia, the Ramon Ljull, and the novel "The Stranger's Daughter" (2015) won the Sant Joan Award for a novel and the Barcelona City Award).
Hachmi also works as a journalist and columnist for the Spanish newspapers "El Pais" and "El Periodico".
"On Monday they will love us" in 2021 receives the most important literary award in Spain, "Nadal".
Her disturbing novel breaks the black-and-white paradigm and spills out all the colors of the spectrum.
Najat El Hachmi is one of the biggest literary names in Bookstar's nine editions, and "On Monday they will love us" talks about the importance of women creating their own destiny and not being mere protagonists. The work and the author won the hearts of our readers.
In the period from October 2-4, everyone has the opportunity to meet the authors during the BookStar Festival.
We expect you!
