Danilo Kis (Данило Киш) (1935-1989) was born in Subotica (Serbia, Vojvodina), as the son of a Montenegrin mother and his Jewish (though with a Hungarian last name) father. Kis is possibly the most well known Serbian writer alongside the Nobel laureate Ivo Andric.

During World War II he lost his father and several other family members, who died in various Nazi camps, he lived in Hungary and then in what was at that time the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and studied literature at the university in Belgrade. Kis graduated from University as the first student to complete a course in comperative literature and was a prominent member of the Vidika magazine, where he worked until 1960. In 1962 he published his first two novels, "mansards" and "Psalam 44". Kis received the prestigious "Ninova Nagrada" for his Pescanik (Hourglas) in 1973, which he returned a few years later, over a political dispute. During the next years Kis received a great number of national and international awards for his prosa and poetry.

Kis was married to Mirjana Miocinovic from 1962 to 1981; after their separation he lived with Pascale Delpech, until his early death on October 15, 1989 in Paris.

Selected Works

  1. Mansarda: satirična poema [1962] (novel)
  2. Psalam 44 [1962] (novel)
  3. Bašta, pepeo [1965] (novel)
  4. Rani jadi: za decu i osetljive [1969] (short stories)
  5. Peščanik [1972] (novel)
  6. Po-etika [1972] (essey)
  7. Po-etika, knjiga druga [1974] (interviews)
  8. Grobnica za Borisa Davidoviča: sedam poglavlja jedne zajedničke povesti [1976] (short stories)
  9. Čas anatomije [1978] (polemic novel)
 10. Noć i magla [1983] (drama)
 11. Homo poeticus [1983] (essays and interviews)
 12. Enciklopedija mrtvih [1983] (short stories)
 13. Gorki talog iskustva [1990] (interviews)
 14. Život, literatura [1990] (interviews and essays)
 15. Pesme i prepevi [1992] (peotry)
 16. Lauta i ožiljci [1994] (short stories)
 17. Skladište [1995] (texts)
 18. Varia [1995] (essays, articles and short stories)
 19. Pesme, Elektra [1995] (poetry and an adaptation from the drama "Elektra")