Vladislav Bajac
Vladislav Bajac is a novelist, story-teller, poet and publisher, born in 1954 in Belgrade. He studied Yugoslav and World Literature at the Faculty of Humanities in Belgrade. He has also worked as a journalist and translator. From English into Serbian, he has edited and translated dozens of literary texts, including several anthologies and books, among which are: The Poets of the Beat Generation (1979), Trip - a guide to contemporary American poetry ( 1983), Zen Stories (1980) and Chan Stories, Leonard Cohen's The Energy of Slaves (1981), What am I Doing Here (1984). He edited the anthology Najnovija beogradska prica/The Latest Stories of Belgrade/(1981). His poetry can be found in the books Which Way Leads to People (1972) and The Way of Haiku (1988). He won the Haiku Poetry Award for his poetry in the International Itoen Haiku Poetry Contest, Tokyo, Japan, in 1991 and 1993.
His books of stories include Europe on the Back of a Bull (1988) and Dream Coasters: Geopoetical Fables (1992, 1995), the latter of which won the "Stevan Pešić Award" for the best book of prose for the year. He has written several outstanding novels: The Book of Bamboo (1989), The Black Box (1993; Borislav Pekić Foundation Award), The Druid from Sindidun (1998; 'Šesti april' Award for the best novel about Belgrade; Branko Ćopić Foundation Award given by the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Bestseller of the Year Award), Escape from Biography (2001; 'Hit Libris' Award), and Europe Express (2003, international 'Golden ring' Award for the overall achievement in literature, Skoplje, Macedonia).
His novel Hamam Balkania was awarded international Balkanika prize for the best novel in the Balkans for 2007/2008, 'Isidora Sekulic' Award for the best book in 2008, as well as 'Hit Liber' Award for the same year.
His poetry and prose has been translated in a dozen foreign languages. His books have been published in France, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Russia, Italy, Slovenia and Greece, and theater plays have been performed based on his texts. He is the vice-president of the Serbian PEN Center.
He is the founder and president of Geopoetika Publishing, Belgrade, Serbia. He lives in Belgrade.