Barbi Marković

Moderator: Gojko Božović

Barbi Marković was born in 1980 in Belgrade. She studied at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade- Department of Germanic Studies- German language, literature and culture as well as in Vienna where she obtained her master’s degree. She has worked as a proofreader for some time. Her novel Izlaženje (Going Out), published in 2009, certainly captured the audience’s attention. It is based on the Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard’s short story “Walking” (“Gehen”) (1971). Its significance lies in the fact that it was instrumental in relating the spirit of the German culture and literature to the audience in Belgrade. The book was translated into Serbian and published under the auspices of the “Rende” publishing house in 2006. Later on the translation by Maša Dabić has become available to the public owing to the “Suhrkamp” publishing house (Germany). She was chosen the City Clerk of Gratz for the year 2011/2012. In 2016, her novel Superheroines was published by the “Residenz Verlag” publishing house. This novel has brought the author the Alpha Literature Prize along with the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize. Furthermore, she received the Reinhard Priessnitz Prize in 2019.
Many short stories, theatre pieces and radio plays followed the success of her novels. Her two novels The Shitty Time and Minihorror were published in 2021 and 2023 respectively by the “Residenz Verlag” publishing house. She received the Berlin Art Prize (Literature Section) in 2023. Additionally, in 2024 she was awarded the Leipzig Book Fair Prize(the category of fiction with mini-horror).