Jelena Lengold, born in Kruševac in 1959, is a short story writer, novelist and poet.

​

She received the “Đura Jakšić” Award for her book of poems, Images from the Life of a Kappelmeister, and the “Jefimijin vez” Award for A Well of Harsh Words. For her book of short stories, The Fairground Magician, she received the European Union Prize for Literature (2011), as well as the “Female Pen”, “Biljana Jovanović” and “Hit Liber” Awards. Her poetry and fiction have been translated into English, Italian, Danish, French, Bulgarian, Rumanian, Ukrainian and Czech. Jelena Lengold’s stories and poems have been included in several anthologies of modern Serbian literature, published both in Serbia and abroad.

 

She has published books of poems including: The Deterioration of Botany (Raspad botanike,1982), The Spindle (Vreteno,1984), The Poppy Region (Podneblje maka, 1986), The Passing of Angels (Prolazak anđela, 1989), Images from the Life of a Kappelmeister (Sličice iz života kapelmajstora, 1991), A Well of Harsh Words (Bunar teških reči, 2011); short story books: Rain-Drenched Lions (Pokisli lavovi, 1994), The Elevator (Lift, 1999), The Fairground Magician (Vašarski mađioničar, 2008, 2009) and Saw Me in Half (Pretesteriši me, 2009); and a novel, Baltimore (2003, 2011, 2014).

​

Jelena Lengold spent ten years working as a journalist and editor in the Radio Belgrade Culture Department. Until 2011, she was the Project Coordinator of the Conflict Management Program for Nansenskolen in Lillehammer, a Norwegian Humanitarian Academy. She current lives in Belgrade.