Sreten Perović
Academician Sreten Perović (Gornja Gorica, Podgor-ica, February 15, 1932), poet, critic, literary historian, theatrologist, playwright, translator, anthologist, journalist and encyclopaedist, research adviser… He completed secondary school in Titograd (1950) and graduated in Yugoslav and world literature from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (January 1956). He started publishing poetry in 1949 and his first book of poetry “Sounds and Distances” was published in 1951 by the Belgrade University Students Literary Club. As a student he helped organize and contributed to a short-lived publication Studentski književni list (1952) and was among the founders of the literary review Vidici (1953).
Upon his return to Montenegro he worked as a secondary school teacher of literature (1956-1961) and editor-in-chief of the magazine “Susreti” (1957-1962); as a managing editor in Montenegrin publishing houses (1963-1981) and as director of the Lexicographic Institute of Montenegro (1981-1991) and editor of Encyclopaedia of Montenegro.
At the end of 1994 he goes into early retirement and continues to contribute to Montenegrin independent publications (magazine Monitor and later Crnogorski književni list). For over half a century Perović has been a theatre critic and a highly successful translator of poetry from Slavonic languages, mostly Macedonian poetry.
Since the year 2000 he has been the editor-in chief of the Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts Montenegrin Encyclopaedia. Having held for quite a few years the post of president of the Montenegrin P.E.N. Centre he is very much engaged at home and internationally defending the rights and interests of Montenegro and the Montenegrin culture. As an active contributor to printed and electronic media Perović fought a consist-ent battle against the war, genocide, ethnocide and urbicide, as well as against the crimes of forced assimilation, violation of human rights and denial of national and cultural identity of Montenegrins, Albanians, Macedonians, Moslems and other peoples. Perović is the author of dozens of books, of which 15 books of lyric poetry. His most important books of poetry are “Séances”(1958), “A Hungry Eye” (1975), “A Voyage to Distant Souls” (1997) and a three-volume book POETRY I, II, III (Podgorica 2009). His poetry has been translated in thirty-odd languages and included in Montenegrin and foreign anthologies. For his literary work Perović has been granted the most important national and prestigious international awards. These include: the first “Golden Pen” of the International Meeting of Translators (Tetovo, 1972); July 13th Award, twice (1969, 1972); international Literary Sceptre and the title of Honorary Citizen-Poet of the City of Skopje (2004); the title of Knight of Macedonian Spirituality (Duhoven voin, 2006) and the annual award of the Miladinov Brothers Mediterranean Academy (2010) Currently, Perović is a Vice-President of the Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts (DANU) and a foreign member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the editor-in-chief of the DANU Montenegrin Encyclopedia, president of the Council of Montenegrin National Theatre and an honorary member of numerous institutions, charities and non-governmental organizations.
In 2010 he was granted the title of Outstanding Cultural Worker, which implies a financial support for life by the Montenegrin State.