Lidija Dimkovska

Portrait of Lidija Dimkovska

Lidija Dimkovska (born 1971) is a Macedonian poet, novelist and translator. She was born in Skopje and studied comparative literature at the University of Skopje. She proceeded to obtain a PhD in Romanian literature at the University of Bucharest. She has taught at the University of Bucharest and the University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia. She now lives in Ljubljana, working as a freelance writer and translator of Romanian and Slovenian literature.

Dimkovska is an editor at Blesok, the online Macedonian literary journal. She has won a number of literary prizes including:

• the Hubert Burda literary prize for young East European poets (2009)
• the Tudor Arghezi international poetry prize in Romania (2012)
• the Macedonian Writers' Union award (twice)
• the EU Prize for Literature (2013)

Her first book was the novel Skriena Kamera (Hidden Camera, 2004). It won the Macedonian Writers' Union award. It was also shortlisted for the Utrinski Vesnik award for the best novel of the year. Skriena Kamera has been translated into Slovenian, Slovakian, Polish, Bulgarian, and Albanian. Another novel A Spare Life also won the Macedonian Writers' Union award, as well as the EU Prize for Literature.

Her book of poems pH Neutral History was translated into English by Ljubica Arsovska and Peggy Reid. It was nominated for the Best Translated Book Award from the online literary journal Three Percent.