Blaže Koneski

poet, prose writer, essayist, literary historian, linguist, translator. Born 19th December 1921 in the village of Nebregovo, Prilep. Died 7th December 1993 in Skopje. Studied Philosophy at the Universities of Belgrade and Sofia. Was a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje. Honorary Doctor of the Universities of Chicago, Krakow and Skopje. Contributed greatly to the standardization of the Macedonian literary language. Compiled the orthography of Macedonian literary language (1945). Founder of Macedonian studies at the University of Skopje. Was an editor of the Dictionary of Macedonian language. Was Rector of the University in Skopje (1958-1960). Member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts and its first president (1967-1975). Member of the Academies of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Chicago and Lodj. Member of the Macedonian P.E.N. Centre. Was an editor of the literary journals “Nov Den” and “Makedonski jazik”. Member of the Macedonian Writers’ Association since 1947 and its first president.
Works: Land and Love (poetry, 1948), An Orthography with a dictionary of the Macedonian language with Krum Tosev (1950), A Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language (book 1, 1952), The Macedonian Literary Language (1959), Poems (1953), A Grammar of the Macedonian Literary Language (book 2 , 1954), The Embroideress (poetry, 1955), The Vineyard (short stories, 1955), Dictionary of the Macedonian language (1961), Poems (1963), A history of the Macedonian Language (1965), Dictionary of the Macedonian Language (book 2, edited, 1965), Dictionary of the Macedonian Language (book 3, 1966), Sterna (poetry, 1966), Hand - Shaking (narrative poem, 1969), The Language of the Macedonian Folk poetry (1971), Speeches and Essays (1972), Notes (poetry, 1974), Poems old and new (poetry, 1979), Places and Moments (poetry, 1981), The Fountains (poetry, 1984), Macedonian Textbooks of 19th Century-linguistic, literary, historical texts (1986), Images and themes (essays, 1987), The Epistle (poetry, 1987), The Tikves anthology (study, 1987), Meeting in Heaven (poetry, 1988), The Church (poetry 1988), A diary after many years (prose, 1988), Golden peak (poetry, 1989), Poetry (Konstantin Miladinov), the way Blaze Koneski reads it (1989), Seizmograph (poetry, 1989), Macedonian locations and topics (essays, 1991), The Heavenly River (poems and translations, 1991) The world of the Legend and the Song (essays, 1993), The Black Ram (poetry, 1993).
Awards include: “11th October”, “Miladinov Brothers”, “Aco Sopov”, “The Herder Prize”, “The Njegos prize”, “AVNOJ”, “The Golden Wreath” of the Struga Poetry Evenings Festival, “Skender Kulenovic”, the Award of the Writer’s Association of SSSR, the Award for his entire literary work by the publishing house “Misla”, “Racinovo Priznanie” and “13th November”.