Damir Karakaš

Damir Karakaš was born in 1967 in the village of Plašćica near Brinje in Lika. He worked for several years as a journalist in Zagreb and Split. Since 2001, he has lived in Bordeaux, France, and from 2002 to 2007 in Paris, supporting himself by playing the accordion. He has published the travelogue Bosanci su dobri ljudi (Bosnians Are Good People), the novel Kombetari, the short story collection Kino Lika (Cinema Lika), the novel Kako sam ušao u Europu (How I Entered Europe), the short story collection Eskimi (Eskimos), the novel Sjajno mjesto za nesreću (A Splendid Place for Misfortune), the short story collection Pukovnik Beethoven (Colonel Beethoven), the novels Blue Moon, Sjećanje šume (Memory of the Forest), Proslava (The Celebration), and Okretište (The Turning Point), which was staged at the Croatian National Theatre in Split under the direction of Dina Mustafić, as well as the novel Potop (The Flood). The film Kino Lika (Cinema Lika), directed by Dalibor Matanić, was adapted from his short story collection of the same name and won multiple awards in Croatia and abroad. A film adaptation of the novel Proslava (The Celebration), directed by Bruno Anković, won the Grand Golden Arena in Pula and the Oktavijan Award from film critics for Best Croatian Film in 2024. His dramatic works are performed in Croatia and internationally. He has received major national and international literary awards, including the Tportal Award for Best Novel, Fric Award, Kočić’s Pen, Meša Selimović Award, PREMIO ITAS, the English PEN Award, and the City of Zagreb Award. The novel Proslava (The Celebration), published in the U.S., was listed by The Paris Review among the 12 best books in the world in 2024. His books have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Czech, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Macedonian, and soon into Spanish, Polish, and Albanian. The collection Eskimi (Eskimos) is the first translation of Croatian literature into Arabic. The novel Sjećanje šume (Memory of the Forest) is included in eighth-grade and third-year high school readers and is also used at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, Department of Film Directing. He is the father of three daughters and lives in Zagreb.