Koneski, Blazhe

Born Dec. 19, 1921, in Nebregovo, southern Macedonia. Macedonian writer and philologist. Presi-dent of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences.

Koneski undertook teaching and editorial work after the liberation of Macedonia from fascist occupation. He was chairman of the Writers’ Union of Yugoslavia from 1961 to 1964. He began to write in 1939. He has written narrative poems (The Bridge, 1945, for example) and collections of verse (Land and Love, 1948; The Embroideress, 1955). The collection of stories Vineyards (1955) contains sketches of the mores of an old province and psychological studies on contemporary themes. Koneski wrote A Grammar of Macedonian (1952–54), the first scholarly work on that language. He has also written a number of historical and literary works.