Skopje, 14 February 2023 (MIA) — On behalf of the Macedonian Writers' Association, its current president Hristo Petreski reacted to the state’s decision not to finance the publications of several well-known Macedonian writers’ latest manuscripts submitted to the Ministry of Culture’s annual contest. If the ministry doesn’t correct these "catastrophic omissions,” the MWA would convene a special plenum to demand responsibility, Petreski wrote in a press release.

The Ministry of Culture decided not to sponsor the publication of new works by established poet Gordana Mihailova Boshnakoska as well as contemporary novelists Petar Andonovski and Blazhe Mineski this year, he said.

Petreski said they had rightfully voiced their complaints in public "because no one has the right to make light of Macedonian writers, underestimate and belittle them." He added that this was "not only their individual problem but also our common and collective handicap, the consequences of which are reflected (now and in the long term) at the national and international level."

He said Mihailova Boshnakoska was an award-winning poet from the third generation, Andonovski an award-winning member of the contemporary Macedonian literary scene, and Minevski's new novel, he said, was about Goce Delchev.

“Neither the Commission for Publishing Activity nor the Ministry of Culture have the right to be censors and reject, that is, not finance our top authors and their latest works,” he wrote. 

“On my behalf and on behalf of the MWA, I publicly raise my voice and call on my colleagues — writers Tomislav Osmanli and Biljana Crvenkovska, as members of the Council for Culture at the Ministry of Culture — to step forward and immediately correct these catastrophic omissions and inhuman injustices,” Petreski writes. mr/