Ceremonial session on the occasion of the centenary of Academician Antonije Isaković’s birth

The ceremonial session on the occasion of marking the centenary of the birth of Academician Antonije Isaković will be held at the SASA Grand Hall, on Wednesday, 22 November, at noon. Academician Miodrag Marković, SASA vice-president and Marko Nedić, PhD, will talk about the work of our renowned writer.

Antonije Isaković (b. Belgrade, 6 November 1923 – d. Belgrade, 13 January 2002) was one of the foremost Serbian and Yugoslav novelists. He acquired gymnasium education in Belgrade and Kruševac. During the Second World War, he was a participant in the National Liberation Movement, as a member of the First Proletarian Brigade. He was appointed the director of NIN magazine in 1949. He was also the editor-in-chief of Delo literary magazine. In the period 1960-1974, he was the general director of the ‘Prosveta’ publishing house. In 1968, he was elected a SASA corresponding member, while in 1976, he became its full member. He was the secretary of the SASA Department of Languages and Literature in the period 1975-1981, and the Academy’s long-term vice-president between 1981 and 1994.

In 1953, he debuted on the literary scene with a collection of short stories titled Velika deca [Grown Children], which talks about the Second World War experiences. The success of the first book brought about a series of collections of stories such as: Paprat i vatra [Fern and Fire] (1962), Prazni bregovi [Empty Hills] (1969) and novels Tran 1: Kazivanja Čeperku (1976), Tren 2: Kazivanja Čeperku (1982), Miran zločin (1992). Many of his works have been adapted for screen, with him also having tackled screenwriting. Based on the motifs of his short stories and novels, the following films have been released: SS Strike at Dawn, Partizan Stories, Moment (directed by Stole Jankovič, as well as the film titled Three (directed by Aleksandar Petrović). His works have been translated into 20 world languages.

For his novelist work, he won numerous accolades, some of which are: Zmaj’s Prize in 1954, the 7^th July Award in 1977, Andrić’s Award in 1977 and NIN’s Award in 1982.