Radovan Beli Markovic (b. in the village of Celije near Lazarevac, 1947), was educated in Lajkovac, Lazarevac and Belgrade. He was a journalist at the “Napred” daily newspaper and afterward, till retirement he was the director of the Municipal Library of Lajkovac. He was a member of the editorial board of important literary magazines, a member of the Serbian Writers’Association and of Serbian PEN. In his literary works and in real life he is inclined toward irony and self-irony, so it is his custom to say that “I finally believed I was a writer when my name showed up in a crossword puzzle”, despite the fact that several studies and doctoral dissertations have been written about his prose. He lives and works in Lajkovac.
He is the author of the novels: Arsonist and Theresa Full of Grace (Palikuca i Tereza milosti puna, 1976), Railroad to Lajkovac (Lajkovacka pruga, 1997), received the Nolit Award and Branko Copic Award; Street lights of Celije (Limunacija u Celijama, 2000), winner of the Meša Selimovic Award for the best novel; The Last Rose of Kolubara (Poslednja ruža Kolubare, 2001); Prince Myshkin in Magnificent Valjevo (Knez Miškin u Belom Valjevu, 2002); Nine White Clouds (Devet belih oblaka, 2003); Pedal Orchestra (Orkestar na pedale, 2004); Old School Cavaliers (Kavaleri starog premera, 2006); Lady Olga (Gospo_a Olga, 2010) which was short-listed for the prestigious NIN Award.
Beli Markovic is the author of several collections of short stories among which are: A Black Cake (Crni kolac, 1985); Swabian Scythe (Švapska kosa, 1989), The Years of Denouement (Godine raspleta, 1992); Settembrini in Kolubara (Setembrini u Kolubari, 1996) for which he won the Andric Award; Old Stories (Stare price, 1999); Little Stories: Vitae Fragmenta (Male price: vitae fragmenta, 1999) the winner of the Bora Stankovic Award; The Blind Side (Corava strana, 2007). Stories authored by Radovan Beli Markovic have been included in several selections and anthologies (in Serbian, German, English, Ukrainian and Macedonian).