Photo: Zharko Chulikj
Poetry that embodies raw clarity and rhythmic boldness, navigating the tensions of identity, desire, and control. Dimitrova’s work plays with irony, emotional grit, and flashes of dark humor, always grounded in a voice that resists simplification and speaks from the edges of convention.
Biography
Kalia Dimitrova (1991, Skopje) is a poet, writer and editor, based in Skopje, North Macedonia. She holds a political science degree from the Ss Cyril and Methodius University –Skopje, where she graduated in 2013. As part of her MA course in Cultural Studies, she studied in Lithuania, The Netherlands, Poland and the USA. Her essay “Skopje the Chameleon”, which draws on the findings of her Master thesis research, has been published by the Polish journal of modern art Obieg.
Her debut poetry collection, Witches of Today, was published in April 2018 by the publishing house Templum. Her poems have been published locally and regionally, and her work is featured in the anthologies Manuscripts (2018), Fairies (panorama of Macedonian poetry written by women, from the XIX century to this day) (2023), The rebirth of the word (2023), Tearing Down the Four Walls: An Anthology of Regional Queer Poetry (2024) and others. In 2023 she has been awarded a writer-in-residence stay at Crocodile, Belgrade by Traduki. In the same year she self-published her second poetry collection Joy in the chaos and won the regional recognition “Štefica Cvek”.
Kalia Dimitrova is the founder, chief and creative editor of the first feminist platform in Macedonian language, Meduza (meduza.mk). Furthermore, she is the editor in chief of Meduza’s publications: Dialogues (2019), Beyond Resilience (2020), Absolute Beginners (2021), Partly cloudy (2022), The good new times (2023) and Breathless (2024). She is a monthly contributor in the newspaper Novosti as a columnist in the field of culture. She is active in the local and regional cultural scene and has participated and co-organized numerous festivals.
Outstanding and latest title:
JOY IN THE CHAOS (2023)
An authentic collection of 35 experimental poems written in the liminal space between youth and aging, exploring topics of home and displacement, identity, (self)destruction, apocalyptic anxieties, pleasure and memory, through a deeply personal and feminist lens, written in vivid, everyday language of Skopje. Balancing vulnerability and strength, and using strong, contemporary imagery, humour and wit, Dimitrova offers a rare and fresh voice in Macedonian poetry that challenges social/literary conventions and opens new emotional and poetic spaces.
No. of pp: 85
Awards and honors:
- Winner of best feminist and queer literature award “Štefica Cvek” for 2023
Rights:
Kalia Dimitrova
kalia.dimitrova@gmail.com