Matevska Atanasova writes about young people and their perception of the world through the prism of technology, but her literary interests are much broader in her short stories.
Biography
Jovana Matevska Atanasova (born in 1991 in Bitola) is a licensed psychologist by profession. She is the author of seven books: the novel “The Snows of Tambov” (2015), the e-novel “Letters in the Library” (2016), which is one of the award-winning books by the Makedonika Foundation and UNESCO for introducing young authors into digital publishing, the psychological guide “I in Superlative” (2021); the short story collections “Famine” (2021) and “Three in Thirteen”, for which she received the “Literary Circle for Prose” award for 2022 from the Bitola Literary Circle Writers’ Association, and the picture books “The Rebellion of the Numbers” (2023) and “Colorful Irises” (2024).
She has also won several awards for short stories: two purchase awards in the short story competitions organized by the daily newspaper “Nova Makedonija” in 2015 and 2016, a double laureate of the “Zhivko Chingo” award in 2020 (for the story “Famine”) and 2021 (for the story “Cigar in Osaka”), and in 2022, she won the first prize in the short story competition organized by the Holocaust Fund, “Tell a Photograph”. For her novel “Fish in/out of the Net”, she received the Pegasus Award for the best unpublished novel in 2023.
Her stories have been translated into English, Serbian, and Albanian, and are included in multilingual collections and anthologies. She also writes literary and theater reviews.
Outstanding title:
FISH IN/OUT OF THE NET (2024)
Do life offline and a life before mobile phones exist – these are the two big philosophical questions that worry the ‘digital natives,’ better known as Generation Z. Fish in/out of the Net is a young adult novel which humorously addresses the issues that affect contemporary teenagers, such as their addiction to mobile devices, multilingualism as a phenomenon of Generation Z, and their bewilderment in front of the real world.
No. of pp: 160
Awards and honors:
- Pegasus Award for the best unpublished novel in 2023
Latest title:
COLOURFUL IRISES (2024)
“Colourful Irises” is a picture book that expands the series of picture books for children with an unusual, extraordinary literary and visual work intended primarily for adults. The text by Jovana Matevska Atanasova and the watercolour illustrations by Simonida Filipova Kitanovska delve deeply and lyrically into a delicate family situation in which the father is blind and, metaphorically speaking, lives through his daughter’s eyes. With great sensitivity and a distinctive artistic sensibility, “Colourful Irises” both writes and draws the love between father and daughter, where darkness and light are held in a firm embrace. Although the picture book is meant for adults, it is “ruled” by a child, making it equally suitable for children to read or to have read to them.
No. of pp: 28
Illustrator: Simonida Filipova Kitanovska
Publisher: Libi, a part of Ars Lamina – Publications, Skopje, 2024
27 pages, paperback, 210 x 210 mm
Age: 14+
Awards and honors:
- Most Creative Edition (2nd prize) from the Macedonian Publishers Association at the Skopje Book Fair 2024;
- Recognition for Encouraging Social Responsibility from the Macedonian Publishers Association at the Skopje Book Fair 2024.
Rights:
Ars Lamina – Publications
rights@arslamina.com
389 (0) 2 3124 227