Zoran Bognar

Zoran Bognar, a well-known Serbian poet, essayist, prose writer, literary critic and editor, was born on January 30th, 1965 in Vukovar, Croatia.

He started his literary career as a novelist, when he wrote and published two novels: The Night of Empty Hands (1989) and The Awake Shape of a Dream (1993) -- even though he achieved his true distinction and prestige as a poet, when he published two trilogies of poetry: Elysian Trilogy (2000) and Albedo, Aura, Alchemy (2009). Among his other books of poetry, the most popular were Insomnia, the White Nights (2013) and Serbia, Could I Be Your Son (2019).

Given the fact that Zoran Bognar has a wide range of interests in various fields of literature, his works also include the books of poetic-phenomenological micro essays: The Photographs of Voices (1997), Eidetic Images (1998) and The Photographs of Voices II (2002). He was also active as a literary critic and editor, as he selected and compiled two poetry anthologies: The New Crucifixion – An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Poetry at the End of the 20th Century (2001) and The Liquid Crystal – An Anthology of Serbian Micro Essays of the 20th Century (2006).

Honoring the brilliant literary career of Zoran Bognar in the past thirty years, the Belgrade publishing house Draganić decided to publish The Chosen Works of Zoran Bognar in a seven volume collection during 2013 and 2014.
The poetry of Zoran Bognar has been translated into Italian, French, English, German, Hungarian, Swedish, Slovenian, Macedonian, Turkish, Armenian, Bulgarian, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian Arabian, and Spanish.
More than two hundred essays, reviews and articles, including a monograph Over the Elysian Waters and Fields Zoran Bognar’s Athletic Pilgrimage written by Vladan Panković and Nikica Banić, (Užice 2002) have been published about Bognar’s literary contribution to poetry.

Zoran Bognar has been recognized as one of the leading poets in Serbia and was therefore the recipient of numerous national prizes such as: The Seal of Sremski Karlovci Town (1993), Matić’s Scarf (1994), Stevan Pešić Award (1994), Blažo Šćepanović Award (1996), Rade Drainac Award (1999), Isidora Sekulić Award (1999), Srboljub Mitić Award (2000), Milutin Uskoković Award (2003), Milan Bogdanović Award (2009), Dimitrije Mitrinović Award (2010), The Award of the Academy Ivo Andrić (2010), The Kočić’s Pen Award (2013), ULUPUDS Award (2013), Miodrag Draganić Award (2013), Golden Ring of Belgrade (2013), Vasko Popa Award (2013), Jovan Skerlić Award (2018), and the last, but not the least, The Ivan Focht Award (2019).

His poetry has also been recognized for the power of its poetic expression with the following international prizes: Vannelli (1997, Italy), Mediterranean Lion (1998, Montenegro) and Hubert Burda (1999, Germany).

To the Bognar’s memorable and prestigious accomplishments, one could also add the literary residency at one of the most branded literary foundations in Europe, Villa Waldberta, Feldafing, Germany (2002), which has gained a worldwide recognition since the times of Thomas Mann, Zbigniew Herbert, Velimir Khlebnikov, Michael Krüger, Istvan Eorsi who were some of the most disinguished alumni of this program.

Zoran Bognar took part in numerous national and international poetry festivals and literature meetings, and held many individual authorial presentations in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Spain, Poland, Australia, as well as in the states of region such as Macedonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia and Montenegro.

He is a member of the Association of Writers in Serbia, as well as an honorable member of the Association of Writers and PEN Club of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Zoran Bognar lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia, as a professional writer and editor of one of the leading Serbian publishing houses Dereta - www.dereta.rs

He is also the President of Ars Longa, the Foundation for the Preservation of Fine Arts - www.fondarslonga.com