Nikola Madžirov

(1973), is one of the most powerful voices of the new European poetry. He was born in a family of Balkan Wars refugees in Strumica, Macedonia. His award-winning poetry has been translated into thirty languages and published in collections and anthologies in US, Europe and Asia. In 2011 BOA Editions published a selection of his poetry in the US titled Remnants of Another Age. In the foreword, Carolyn Forché tells us, "Madzirov calls himself 'an involuntary descendant of refugees,' referring to his family's flight from the Balkan Wars a century ago: his surname derives from mazir or majir, meaning 'people without a home.' The ideas of shelter and of homelessness, of nomadism, and spiritual transience serves as a palimpsest in these Remnants"—while Madzirov himself tells us in one of his poems, “History is the first border I have to cross.”