Biography

Goran Stefanovski (Macedonian: Горан Стефановски; 27 April 1952 – 27 November 2018) was a leading Macedonian dramatist, screenwriter, essayist, lecturer and public intellectual. He wrote for the theatre, television and film, as well as pursuing a long academic career in teaching creative writing for the theatre and film.

Stefanovski is best known for his second play "Wild Flesh" (Диво месо), which won the 1980 Sterijino Pozorje Theatre Festival Award for Best Yugoslav Play of the Year and the same year earned him the 11th October Prize, the highest award of what was then the Republic of Macedonia. He wrote 23 full-length plays for the theatre in all. The most widely performed internationally are "Wild Flesh" (Диво месо), "Hi-Fi", "Flying on the Spot" (Лет во место), "Tattooed Souls" (Тетовирани души), "The Black Hole" (Црна дупка), "Chernodrinski Comes Back Home" (Чернодрински се враќа дома), "Sarajevo, an oratorio for the theatre", "Hotel Europa", and "The Demon of Debar Maalo" (Демонот од Дебар маало).

Born into a theatre family in Bitola, then in Yugoslavia, on 27 April 1952, Stefanovski had his first play performed at the age of 22. After the fall of Yugoslavia, he spent eight years commuting between what had become the Republic of Macedonia, the UK and Sweden, before settling in the UK in 2000. He had dual Macedonian/UK citizenship.

Stefanovski's work dealt with issues of migration, post-communist transition and identity, as well as what it means to be human.