Madzirov’s poetry is a praise of subjectivity, of the most intimate that is projected onto the universal, a cosmos in itself.
Biography
Nikola Madzirov (born in 1973 in Strumica) is a Macedonian poet, editor, and translator born to a family of Balkan War refugees. Madzirov’s poetry examines both personal and cultural geography in order to trace the nature of our movement across those landscapes. In a review of “Remnants of Another Age” in the “Tottenville Review”, Mike Walker notes, “[O]ften in Madzirov’s poetry, there is a sense of escape but also a sense of the imperative for such escape. The characters who people his poems are half the time in transit, in flight, and half the time already gone. There is a sense of autumnal winsomeness yet also a feeling of suspense in his work.” In a 2011 interview with L.A. Grove for the “California Journal of Poetics”, Madzirov addressed the nature of translation, stating, “There are many poems in which we can recognize ourselves without having written them, just as there are cities where we have imagined ourselves much earlier before we travel there. The translator is a silent deconstructor, a night guard of the bridges of difference and understanding”. He is the author of several collections of poetry including “Studentski Zbor” award-winner “Locked in the City” (1999), “Aco Karamanov” Award-winner “Somewhere Nowhere” (1999), and “Huberta Burda” European Poetry Award-winner “Relocated Stone” (2007). Poet Carolyn Forche wrote the foreword to a volume of his selected poems, “Remnants of Another Age” (2011, translated by Peggy Reid, Graham Reid, Magdalena Horvat, and Adam Reed). Madzirov’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages. His additional honors include the “Miladinov Brothers” poetry prize and residencies at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, LiteraturRaum in Berlin, KulturKontakt in Vienna, Literatur Haus NO in Krems, and Villa Waldberta in Munich. He has served as Macedonian coordinator for the international poetry network for Lyrikline and as poetry editor for the Macedonian online journal “Blesok”.
Outstanding title:
RELOCATED STONE (2007)
“These poems move mysteriously by means of a profound inner concentration, giving expression to the deepest laws of the mind. Their linguistic ‘making’ is informed by vivid evidence of a serious self-making, soul-making, and heart-making.” – Li-Young Lee
No. of pp: 78
Awards and honors:
- Winner of the Hubert Burda Prize for East European poets
- National poetry award “Miladinov Brothers” at the Struga Poetry Evenings in 2008
Translations:
His poetry is translated in more than 40 languages.
Latest title:
HOUSE IN SILENCE (2024)
The essays are filled with poetic reflections on the nature of time, space, and human experience. Madzirov does not hesitate to tackle big themes. He explores the relationship between past and present, the personal and the collective, the individual and society. Themes such as travel, migration, displacement, and the search for “home” give a distinct tone to the essays, in which the intimate experience of dislocation takes on a metaphysical quality.
– Vladimir Jankovski, writer and editor
No. of pp: 125
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