David Albahari (, ; 15 March 1948 – 30 July 2023) was a Serbian writer. Albahari wrote mainly novels and short stories in the

Serbian language Serbian (, ) is the standard language, standardized Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the official and national language of Serbia, one of the three official languages of ...

. He was also an established translator from English into

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

. He was a member of the

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , SANU) is a national academy and the most prominent academic institution in Serbia, founded in 1841 as Society of Serbian Letters (, DSS). The Academy's membership has included Nobel Prize, Nobel la ...

and a

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

graduate. Albahari was awarded the prestigious

NIN Award The ''NIN'' Award (, Нинова награда), officially the Award for Best Novel of the Year, is a prestigious Serbian (and previously Yugoslavian) literary award established in 1954 by the NIN (magazine), ''NIN'' weekly and is given annua ...

for the best novel of 1996 for ''Mamac'' (''Bait''). He was among the award's finalists on seven other occasions.

Biography

David Albahari was born on 15 March 1948 in

Peć Peja or Peć, ), is the fifth most populous city in Kosovo and serves as the seat of the Peja Municipality and the District of Peja. It is located in the Rugova (region), Rugova region on the eastern section of the Accursed Mountains along the ...

,Biography
at

SANU The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (; , SANU) is a national academy and the most prominent academic institution in Serbia, founded in 1841 as Society of Serbian Letters (, DSS). The Academy's membership has included Nobel laureates Ivo ...

official website, in the former Yugoslav region of

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

to a

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

father and a mother of Serbian origin (who had previously been married to an Ashkenazi Jewish man killed in the Holocaust, as were their children and as was the first family of his father, which Albahari himself defined as "Four children had to die so that I, and my sister, would be born."). Albahari published the first collection of short stories ''Porodično vreme'' ("Family Time") in 1973. He became better known to wider audience in 1982 with a volume ''Opis smrti'' ("A Description of Death") for which he got the

Andrić Prize The Andrić Prize () is a Serbian and formerly Yugoslav annual literary award for short stories and short story collections written in Serbian, granted by the ''Zadužbina Ive Andrića'' ("Ivo Andrić Foundation") since 1975. History The prize ...

. In 1991 he became the chair of the Federation of Jewish Communes of Yugoslavia, and worked on evacuation of the Jewish population from

besieged Sarajevo The siege of Sarajevo () was a prolonged military blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the ethnically charged Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by Serbian forces of the Yugoslav People's Arm ...

. In 1994, he moved with his family to

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, where he lived until 2012 when he returned to live in Belgrade. He continued to write and publish in the

. In the late 1980s, Albahari initiated the first formal petition to legalize marijuana in Yugoslavia. Albahari died after a long illness in Belgrade on 30 July 2023, at the age of 75.

Awards

In 2012 he was awarded the

Vilenica Prize Vilenica International Literary Festival () is a festival dedicated to literature that was founded in 1986 in Slovenia. It takes place annually in several locations on the Karst Plateau in the Slovene Littoral, including inside Vilenica Cave. It ...

. He also received the following awards: the

(1982), Stanislav Vinaver Award (1993),

NIN Prize The ''NIN'' Award (, Нинова награда), officially the Award for Best Novel of the Year, is a prestigious Serbian (and previously Yugoslavian) literary award established in 1954 by the NIN (magazine), ''NIN'' weekly and is given annua ...

(1996),

National Library of Serbia The National Library of Serbia () is the national library of Serbia, located in the capital city of Belgrade. It is the biggest library, and oldest institution in Serbia, one that was completely destroyed many times over in the last two centuries ...

Award for bestseller (1996), International Balkanika Award (1996), Bridge Berlin Award (1998), City of Belgrade Award (2005) and

Isidora Sekulić Award The Isidora Sekulić Award (, sr-cyr, Награда Исидора Секулић) is a Serbian, and former Yugoslav, literary prize established by the Belgrade municipality of Savski venac in 1967 and awarded annually since 1968 in honor of th ...

(2014). On 29 July 2016, Albahari won the first award at the " Druga prikazna" ("Another Story") literary festival in

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

.Давид Албахари - добитник на првата награда „Друга приказна“
/ref> Albahari was a contributor to ''

Geist ''Geist'' () is a German noun with a significant degree of importance in German philosophy. ''Geist'' can be roughly translated into three English meanings: ghost (as in the supernatural entity), spirit (as in the Holy Spirit), and mind or int ...

'' magazine.

Selected bibliography

His books have been translated into several languages and several of them are available in English.

Novels

*"Cink" (1988''). Tsing'', trans. David Albahari (1997) *"Snežni čovek" (1995). ''Snow Man'', trans.

Ellen Elias-Bursać Ellen Elias-Bursać (born 1952) is an American scholar and literary translator. Specializing in South Slavic literature, she has translated numerous works from Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. Early life Ellen Elias was born in Cambridge, Massac ...

(2005) *"Mamac" (1996). ''Bait'', trans. Peter Agnone (2001) *"Gec i Majer" (1998). ''Götz and Meyer'', trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (Harvill, 2004; Harcourt, 2005) *"Svetski putnik" (2001). ''Globetrotter'', trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (2014) *"Pijavice" (2005). ''Leeches'', trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (2011) *"Kontrolni punkt" (2011). ''Checkpoint'', trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (2018) *"Životinjsko carstvo" (2014) *''"''Danas je sreda" (2017) *"Pogovor" (2021)

Compilations in English

* ''Words Are Something Else'', ed. Tomislav Longinović; trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (Northwestern University Press, 1996). Selections from collections published between 1973 and 1993. * ''Learning Cyrillic: Stories'', trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (Geopoetika, 2012; Dalkey Archive, 2014). Selections from collections published between 1997 and 2009.

References

External links

Homepage in Serbian and English''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with David Albahari
from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Biography at Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin

"Marijuana March in Belgrade"

David Albahari
at ''

''.com
Biography at Zandonai Editore

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albahari, David 1948 births 2023 deaths Writers from Peja Serbian novelists Serbian translators English–Serbian translators Serbian Sephardi Jews University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology alumni Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Writers from Calgary Jewish writers Serbian male short story writers Canadian cannabis activists Male novelists International Writing Program alumni Serbian emigrants to Canada Peja Jewish Kosovan history 20th-century Serbian Jews 21st-century Serbian Jews 21st-century Canadian Jews Serbian short story writers