Milorad Pavić (writer)

Milorad Pavić
Milorad Pavić at the 2007 Belgrade Book Fair
Born	(1929-10-15)15 October 1929 Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Died	30 November 2009 (aged 80) Belgrade, Serbia
Resting place	New Cemetery, Belgrade
Occupation	Writer • poet • literary historian • translator
Language	Serbian
Nationality	Serbian
Alma mater	University of Belgrade University of Zagreb
Genres	Experimental novel, Short story, playwright, poetry
Notable works	Dictionary of the Khazars Landscape Painted with Tea The Inner Side of the Wind
Spouse	Jasmina Mihajlović
Children	Ivan Jelena
Website
www.khazars.com/en/

Milorad Pavić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад Павић, pronounced [mîlɔ̝raːd pǎːv̞it͡ɕ]; 15 October 1929 – 30 November 2009) was a Serbian novelist, poet, short story writer, and literary historian. Born in Belgrade in 1929, he published many poems, short stories and novels during his lifetime, the most famous of which was the Dictionary of the Khazars (1984). Upon its release, it was hailed as "the first novel of the 21st century." Pavić's works have been translated into more than thirty languages. He was vastly popular in Europe and in South America, and was deemed "one of the most intriguing writers from the beginning of the 21st century." He won numerous prizes in Serbia and in the former Yugoslavia, and was mentioned several times as a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in Belgrade in 2009.

Milorad Pavić was born in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 15 October 1929 to a distinguished family of intellectuals and writers "that has produced well-known writers for six generations, since the 18th century". He received a Bachelor of Arts in literature from the University of Belgrade, and later obtained a PhD in literary history at the University of Zagreb.

Pavić entered the literary scene with two collections of poetry titled Palimpsests (Palimpsesti), and Moon Stone (Mesečev kamen), published in 1969 and 1971, respectively. Pavić's poems were soon translated into English, and included in the anthology titled Contemporary Yugoslav Poems. Soon after, Pavić dedicated himself to writing prose and several short story collections were published. Pavić's first and most famous novel, Dictionary of the Khazars (Hazarski rečnik), was published in 1984. It received widespread critical acclaim upon release, and was hailed as "the first novel of the 21st century." Written as a poetic dictionary, the book has been described as "a quasi-historical account of the semi-imaginary tribe of the Khazars."