Biography
Liljana Pandeva was born in 1964 in Novo Selo, Strumica. She is a graduate professor of Macedonian and South Slavic literature and Macedonian language. Pandeva has a doctorate in philological sciences. She is the author of several works, including: “Novogodishni ednochnki”, short stories for children in verse, the poetry book “Ljubov od A do SH i obratno”, the short story books: “Vozovite na Lucern”, “Kancelariski kolumni”, “Klasificirano”, “Zaorani”, “Lugjenca”, “Hranitel(k)i”, the novels “Od agendata na Kalina Kalin”, “Dnevnici na edna ljubov”, “Dva Bozika”, “Bozik pod Belasica”, “Zara Zarina” and “Doilkata”, winner of the “Stale Popov” award of the Macedonian Writers Association, translated in German, Russian and Serbian, the poem “Kapetanite” for which she received the “Grigor Prlichev” award for best poem. She was awarded the 13 November Award of the City of Skopje for 2021, in the field of culture for contribution to Macedonian contemporary literature and as a Macedonian language proofreader. She has also won several awards for short stories. Liljana Pandeva is also the author of a large number of scientific papers in the field of Macedonian studies and literary criticism. Her works have been translated into several foreign languages.
Outstanding title:
DOILKATA (2016)
“The novel tells a timeless love story set within a historical framework, revealing little-known details of Macedonian history (the 40-day search for King Prebond). It is an exciting, full-blooded, poetic book featuring luminous lyrical passages, layered language, and pronounced dramatic tension that delves deep into the realms of the writer’s imagination. With the novel The Wet Nurse (Доилката), which can freely be called an anthem to love and passion, Pandeva reaches the very pinnacle of Macedonian storytelling mastery” ̶ Julijana Velichkovska.
“The historical facts surrounding the final days of Prebond, king of the medieval realm of Macedonian Sclavinia, served Liljana Pandeva as the foundation for crafting a magnificent love story filled with intense passions, an erotic charge, and exquisite narrative landscapes” ̶ Ermis Lafazanovski.
No. of pp: 127
Awards and honors:
Winner of the “Stale Popov” award of the Macedonian Writers Association in 2017.
Rights sold to:
- Russia (“U Nikitskikh Vorot”, Moscow)
- Serbia (Alma, Belgrade).
Latest title:
ZARA ZARINA (2025)
“Zara Zarina prospectively leads us into the protagonist’s future while retrospectively taking us back to her parents’ past—through all the turbulent experiences where the national and the religious, the traditional and the modern, intertwine in miraculous fusions. It does so precisely through stories that branch out in various directions from the premise of a ‘mission impossible,’ capturing the current situation at the story’s starting point (Kabul), taking us back to a time when a considerable number of foreign students, primarily from Arab countries, studied in Macedonia, through countless descriptions and narratives of student life at that time across dormitories, cafeterias, faculties, and other popular hangout spots, while also following contemporary stories along the migrant route. (…)
Pandeva’s latest manuscript opens up new spaces in Macedonian literature: on one hand, it captures the 1980s in Macedonia—a period not yet fully explored in literature—and on the other, it confronts the uncertainty of current global crises. Hence, the manuscript carries both a historical and a contemporary dimension. With great sensibility and skill, the author succeeds in creating a symbiosis of seemingly incompatible chronotopes” ̶ Lidija Kapushevska-Drakulevska.
No. of pp: 202