Struga Poetry Evenings (SPE) ( mk, Струшки вечери на поезијата, СВП; tr. ''Struški večeri na poezijata'', ''SVP'') is an international poetry festival held annually in

Struga Struga ( mk, Струга , sq, Strugë) is a town and popular tourist destination situated in the south-western region of North Macedonia, lying on the shore of Lake Ohrid. The town of Struga is the seat of Struga Municipality. Name The n ...

, North Macedonia. During the several decades of its existence, the Festival has awarded its most prestigious award, the Golden Wreath, to some of the most notable international poets, including:

Mahmoud Darwish Mahmoud Darwish ( ar, محمود درويش, Maḥmūd Darwīsh, 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He won numerous awards for his works. Darwish used Palestine ...

, Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan Agyey,

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generat ...

Bulat Okudzhava Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (russian: link=no, Булат Шалвович Окуджава; ka, ბულატ ოკუჯავა; hy, Բուլատ Օկուջավա; May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musici ...

, Pablo Neruda,

Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale (; 12 October 1896 – 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature. Life and works Early years Montale was born in Genoa. His family were che ...

, Léopold Sédar Senghor,

Artur Lundkvist Nils Artur Lundkvist (3 March 1906 – 11 December 1991) was a Swedish writer, poet and literary critic. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1968. Artur Lundkvist published around 80 books, including poetry, prose poems, essays, short ...

, Hans Magnus Enzensberger,

Nichita Stănescu Nichita Stănescu (; born Nichita Hristea Stănescu; 31 March 1933 – 13 December 1983) was a Romanian poet and essayist. Biography Stănescu's father was Nicolae Hristea Stănescu (1908–1982). His mother, Tatiana Cereaciuchin, was Russian ...

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

Ko Un Ko Un (born 1 August 1933) is a South Korean poet whose works have been translated and published in more than fifteen countries. He had been imprisoned many times due to his role in the campaign for Korean democracy and was later mentioned in K ...

Adunis Ali Ahmad Said Esber (, North Levantine: ; born 1 January 1930), also known by the pen name Adonis or Adunis ( ar, أدونيس ), is a Syrian poet, essayist and translator. He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the 20th century, ...

, Makoto Ooka,

Miroslav Krleža Miroslav Krleža (; 7 July 1893 – 29 December 1981) was a Yugoslav and Croatian writer who is widely considered to be the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. He wrote notable works in all the literary genres, including poetry ('' B ...

, Yehuda Amichai, Seamus Heaney, Tomas Gösta Tranströmer,

Bei Dao Bei Dao (, born August 2, 1949) is the pen name of the Chinese-American writer Zhao Zhenkai (S: 赵振开, T: 趙振開, P: ''Zhào Zhènkāi''). Among the most acclaimed Chinese-language poets of his generation, he is often regarded as a candida ...

Amir Or Amir Or (אמיר אור) (born 1956), is an Israeli poet, novelist, and essayist whose works have been published in 45 languages. Levin, Lynn, "Israeli Poet Amir Or: A Conversation About Language, Myth, and the Soul" at the "Poetry Life and Times ...

and domestic authors such as

Blaže Koneski Blaže Koneski ( mk, Блаже Конески; 19 December 1921 – 7 December 1993) was a Macedonian poet, writer, literary translator, and linguistic scholar. His major contribution was to the codification of standard Macedonian. He is the k ...

and

Mateja Matevski Mateja Matevski (13 March 1929 – 6 June 2018) was a Macedonian poet, literary and theater critic, essayist, and translator. Career Matevski was born on 13 March 1929 in Istanbul, Turkey to an Albanian family of the Eastern Orthodox rite. His ...

History

The festival began in 1961 in

, then

People's Republic of Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...

with Macedonian poets only, while in 1963 it expanded its list of participants with poets from all around the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The

Miladinov Brothers The Miladinov brothers ( bg, Братя Миладинови, ''Bratya Miladinovi'', mk, Браќа Миладиновци, ''Brakja Miladinovci''), Dimitar Miladinov (1810–1862) and Konstantin Miladinov (1830–1862), were Bulgarian poets ...

Award was established for the best poetry book published between two consecutive festivals. By 1966 the event turned into an international

cultural festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

. The Golden Wreath international award was established in the same year and its first recipient was Robert Rozhdestvensky. In 2003, in close cooperation with UNESCO, the Festival established another international award called The Bridges of Struga, for a best debut poetry book by a young author. During its long successful existence, the festival has hosted about 4,000 poets, translators, essayists and literary critics from about 95 countries of the world. The festival has awarded some of the world's most eminent literary figures, including several Nobel Prize for Literature winners such as

, Pablo Neruda and Seamus Heaney, the first African member of the French Academy Léopold Sédar Senghor who was also a President of Senegal, the official royal

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

who is regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and many others. A point of interest is that the festival often awarded foreign poets who were considered

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the ...

s in their countries, including for example the Russian exiled poet Joseph Brodsky, the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an poet Pablo Neruda, the American

beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. History In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underg ...

, the

Soviet bard The term bard ( rus, бард, p=bart) came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment, similarly to folk sin ...

and many others. In memory of the laureates, the Park of Poetry featuring memorial boards dedicated to each of them was established near the Struga Cultural Center.

Organization

The festival has offices in

and in Skopje (an office director, an executive and a technical secretary) and is organized by a Festival Board, which consists of knowledgeable professionals in the field of poetry (poets, literary critics, translators, and professors in

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

and culture).

Events

The festival consists of several events held at different locations: * Opening ceremony on the plateau in front of the Cultural Centre in

including a traditional reading of '' Taga za Jug'' ( Macedonian language: Т’га за југ, ''A Longing for The South''), the famous nostalgic lyrical poem written by the Struga-born poet Konstantin Miladinov during his life in Imperial Russia. *''Meridijani'' (''Меридијани'', ''Meridians'') a poetry reading by various international poets in the Cultural Centre following the opening ceremony. *''Portret na Laureatot'' (''Портрет на Лауреатот'', ''Portrait of the Lauerate'') an event devoted to the year's main award recipient traditionally held in the church of St. Sofia in the nearby city of Ohrid usually accompanied by

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

, opera or domestic or foreign

ethnic music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

performance. *''Noći bez interpukcija'' (''Ноќи без интерпукција'', ''Nights without Punctuation'') multimedia artistic events featuring experimental forms of poetic presentations, which can also include other arts like music and video art. * Daily poetry picnic at

Sveti Naum The Monastery of Saint Naum ( mk, Манастир „Свети Наум“) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in North Macedonia, named after the medieval Bulgarian writer and enlightener Saint Naum who founded it. It is situated along Lake Ohri ...

springs near the

Ohrid Lake Lake Ohrid ( mk, Охридско Езеро , al, Liqeni i Ohrit , also referred as ''Liqeni i Pogradecit'';) is a lake which straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of E ...

including

Ethnic Macedonian music The Macedonian music refers to all forms of music associated with ethnic Macedonians. It share similarities with the music of neighbouring Balkan countries, yet it remains overall distinctive in its rhythm and sound. Folk music The ethnic Macedo ...

and dances. *''Mostovi'' (''Мостови'', ''Bridges'') the closing ceremony held at the ''Bridge of Poetry'' on the river Drim in Struga including poetry readings and the awarding ceremony. Other events include workshops, round-table discussions on various social topics and their influence on poetry, etc. Another event in the so-called ''Caravan of Poetry'', which consists of poetry performances around the country. Usually, after the end of the Festival, the Festival also organizes poetry reading in the national capital, Skopje.

Awards

*Zlaten Venec na Poezijata (''Златен Венец на Поезијата, Golden Wreath of Poetry''), the main international award given to a world-renowned living poet for life achievement in the field of poetry. The recipient's name is publicized usually several months in advance. *Brakja Miladinovci (''Браќа Миладиновци, Miladinov Brothers Award'') for a best book published between two festivals. *The Bridges of Struga, for a best debuting author. *Iselenička gramota, for poets from the Macedonian

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews afte ...

Golden Wreath laureates

Bridges of Struga laureates

* 2004 Angelo V. Suárez (Philippines) * 2005

Andrea Cote Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew. Origin of the name The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός (''andrós''), that ref ...

(Colombia) * 2006 Marianna Geide (Russia) * 2007 Manua Rime (Belgium) * 2008 Antonia Novakovic (Croatia) * 2009 Ousmane Sarrouss (Senegal) * 2010 Siim Kera (Estonia) * 2011 Hiroshi Taniuchi (Japan) * 2012 François-Xavier Maigre (France) * 2013 Nikolina Andova Shopova (North Macedonia) * 2014 Harry Man (United Kingdom) * 2015 Paula Bozalongo (Spain) * 2016 Runa Svetlikova (Belgium) * 2017 Goran Čolakhodžić (Croatia) * 2018 Pauli Tapio (Finland) * 2019 Monika Herceg (Croatia) * 2020 Martina Strakova (Slovenia) * 2021 Vladan Kreckovic (Serbia) * 2022 Gerardo Masuccio (Italy)

Publications

The ''Struga Poetry Evenings'' organization is also involved in book publishing.

Poetry anthologies

References

External links

*
World poetry comes to Struga
—

Southeast European Times Southeast European Times was a United States European Command-sponsored news website dedicated to coverage of Southeast Europe that ended publication in March 2015. The countries covered included Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Gr ...

UNESCO DG, Irina Bokova celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Struga Poetry Evenings

— UNESCO official portal
Celebration of World Poetry Day
— UNESCO official portal
Struga Poetry Evenings Festival
— UNESCO official website
''Exploring Macedonia'' National Tourism Portal

Macedonia: Decades-Old International Poetry Festival in Focus
- Global Voices {{Authority control Recurring events established in 1962 1962 establishments in Yugoslavia Annual events in North Macedonia Festivals in Yugoslavia