Photo: Igor Todorovski
Andova Shopova writes about unordinary human destinies, people who differ from the environment they live in, the belief in the irrational and the unspeakable as an important element of human life.
Biography
Nikolina Andova Shopova is a poet and a writer from Skopje. She has published two books of poetry “The entrance is on the other side” (2013) and “Connect the dots” (2014). Her first book “The entrance is on the other side” was awarded with the prestigious award “Bridges of Struga” in 2013, award of UNESCO and the Struga Poetry Evenings for best debut book. In 2014 she published her second poetry book “Connect the dots”, which is also published in Serbian language. In 2016, a selection of her poetry in English, Macedonian and French is published by Éditions Bruno Doucey, and selection of her poetry is also published in Slovak language. Her poems take part in many anthologies of Macedonian and European poetry. They are translated into many world languages and she has been a participant in many poetry festivals across Europe. In 2019 she received the Novel of the Year award, for her first novel “Someone Was Here”, awarded by the Foundation for promotion of cultural values “Slavko Janevski”. The novel is translated in Serbian language and is published in the publishing house “Treći Trg”. In 2020 the publishing house “Ili-Ili” publishes her children book “Dzvezdan, the mole”. Her latest novel “Estom” was published in 2022.
Outstanding title:
SOMEONE WAS HERE (2018)
A story that draws you in immediately. Skillfully presented images, both impressive and meditative. Precisely depicted mysterious and unpredictable characters. Realistic, but disturbing setting. Carefully selected exteriors and interiors – someone else’s apartment, for example, as a kind of “immovable character”, into which the main character secretly enters as in a cradle and a tomb, which lures to radical decisions.
The novel “Someone Was Here” is psychologically compelling and disturbingly profound: it hunts the moment when the pain becomes madness and death.
No. of pp: 121
Awards and honors:
- Novel of the Year Award for 2018
Rights sold to:
Serbia.
Rights:
Nikola Gelevski
nikola.gelevski@gmail.com
Latest title:
THE SMALLEST GIANT DWARFY AND THE BIGGEST DWARF GIANTO (2024)
A witty poem with a skillfully woven wordplay (and rhyming) that tells the story of the eternal rivalry between Dwarfy and Gianto and their argument over who is bigger! The poem also follows all the trials they go through just to prove their opponent wrong—that is, to win.
What distinguishes this poem, as with all good children’s literature, is that it speaks not only to children but to adults as well. The attentive reader will discover the author’s allusions to other eternal disputes between two powerful egos, and these will lead them to recognition, and even identification.
No. of pp: 43
Illustrator: Natalia Łukomska
Publisher: Begemot Publishers, 2024
40 pages, hardback, 24×24 cm
Age: 10-6
Awards and honors:
• Best children’s book between two book fairs – first prize, award by the Macedonian Association of Publishers in 2025
Rights:
Begemot Publishers
info@begemot.mk