An autobiography of war-time Bitola

Thanks to my dear friend Jim Hlavac from Australia I have recently receieved the English edition of Akchilnica (which literaly translates in little restaurant) by Vera Buzarovska. The English translation done by Paul Filev is titled The Last Summer in the Old Bazaar. The English translation is published by Saguaro Books, Arizona in 2015.

This semi-autobiografical novel talks about live in Bitola, right before and during the Second World War, under German and Bulgarian occupation. It describes the ethnic diversity of the town before the deportation of the large Jewish community to Treblinka. We see all these event through the eyes of an eleven years old girl. She works at a small restaurant in the Old Bazaar together with Sami, who is Albanian and Leon, who is Jewish.

Listen to Jim and Paul talking at the Melburn promotion of the book here.

Stories of Old

Folklore and folklore scholarsip has been see as one of the ways to promote and develop national identities in the new independent states. They are also a link between the diaspora and their native culture. Thus many of the books on this blog happen to be translatios of folk tales.

Some Great Old Stories From the Old Country is a small book, only 35 pages, published in 2006 by Nettle Hollow.  The stories in this book are old stories from the oral folk tradition of Macedonia. They are fun to share with both young and old. 

The translator and illustrator is Michael Seraphinoff, is a scholar with degrees in anthropology and an M.A. in Slavic linguistics. In addition to this latest publication, Seraphinoff has written some academic books and papers, and has translated Silyan the Stork. 

You can buy this book from the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society and Amazon. 

Children's Novels

The project of the Macedonian Government for translating "130 volumes of Macedonian Literature" into English has finished and the books have been distributed to major National Libraries throughout the world. I had the pleasure of translating the Anthology of Children's Short Stories, edited by Petre Dimovski. There are three more books for children in the whole Project: two books of children's novels and one anthology of children's poetry. 

Children's Novels 1

Children's Novels 2

The cover was created by Kočo Fidanovski.



In this post I will present the two books of novels. The editor of Children's Novels is Svetlana Hristova Jocikj and the translators are Aleksandra Koceva and Marija Dimovska.

Check out if the library near you can provide these books and here is a quick link to the Library of Congress.


The books include pieces by authors:

The magic saddle / Vančo Nikoleski ; 
Bojan / Gligor Popovski ; 
Milosija / Kata Misirkova-Rumenova ; 
The white gyrsy boy / Vidoe Podgorec
Big and small / Boško Smaḱoski ; 
Salad days / Velko Nedelkovski ; 
Marta / Gorjan Petrevski ; 
The girl with two names / Jadranka Vladova ; 
The monastery bells / Kiro Donev

Another folk story

Theater for Children and Youth Skopje

After the Croatian folk tales, you can also check the translation of an old folk story from Macedonia, Silyan the Stork translated in English by Michael Seraphinoff.

The story comes from the collections of folk tales recorded by Marko Cepenkov (or Tsepenkov) (1829 - 1920). A selection from the collection is also available in English edited by Dr. Ilija Casule, translated by Fay Thomev and published by Macquarie Univerity, Sidney.

The Macedonian language children adaptation of the story can be found at the Digital Children's Library.

A Diary of a Cat

Could you guess by looking at the cover? Yes, Anya is a cat. A cat who likes her family, want's to explore the world outside her apartment, and keeps a diary. Written by Dimitar Bashevski, the book was first published in 1994 in Macedonian and appeared in English translation by Will Firth in 2007.

Cats have been literary muses for many famous writers. But, Dimitar Basevski is probably the only one who presents to us our human world from a cat's perspective. And our world is full of love and caring, but also cruelty. This book is a cry against this malice. All you cat lovers your collections will not be complete without this short, 100 page, novel for children that comes from Skopje, Macedonia.     

The book has been published by Slovo Press, Skopje, Macedonia.

Will Firth has also translated Pirey by Petre M. Andreevski. For other works translated by Will Firth you can check his website.

More Short Stories

Another anthology of short stories for children comes from Macedonia. Created as part of the 130-book strong Translation Project Macedonian Literature in English funded by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, it was published in 2011 by the National and University Library St. Clement of Ohrid, Skopje. It is one of the four books in the project devoted to children's literature. The stories for the anthology were selected by Petre Dimovski, and translated into English by yours truly. It contains 68 stories written by 28 authors, covering a period from immediately after World War II, when "Macedonian children's literature had its beginnings" (p.7), up to 2007. As Dimovski points out in his introduction, the stories were selected to correspond with the broad distinction of three periods in the development of the Macedonian children's literature. At the beginning, Macedonian writers for children mostly relied on folklore and legends, with stories of rural life; the second generation of authors for children wrote about childhood experiences from a more lyrical and meditational point of view; and the third group of authors opened up to new horizons, with prevalent urban environments (pp. 11-13). 
The anthology includes well known children's authors such as Vanco Nikoleski, one of pioneers of children's literature in Macedonia, Vidoe Podgorec, Slavka Maneva, Boshko Smakjoski, Kiro Donev, Gorjan Petreski, as well as more recent figures. It's worth noting that only four of the 28 authors included in this anthology are women, with the prominent absence of Olivera Nikolova, one of most widely read women writers for children in Macedonia (and my all time favorite). To read this book you can check whether it is available at your local library, and here is the link to the British Library and the Library of Congress.