Biography of Aleksandar Tišma (1924–2003)

Aleksandar Tišma was a novelist, poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, and academic. He studied English language and literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.

In 1944, he joined the National Liberation Movement and later worked as a journalist in Novi Sad. Tišma spent much of his professional life at Matica Srpska, first as secretary and later as editor, including six years as editor of Letopis Matice Srpske.

His writing—translated into more than twenty languages—explores themes of the Holocaust, human cruelty, and moral complexity. He is regarded as one of the most important Yugoslav writers of the twentieth century. Tišma’s best-known novel, Upotreba čoveka (The Use of a Man, 1976), earned him the Nolit Award, the NIN Award, and the Serbian Library’s Award for the most-read book of 1978.

His ouvre includes works such asBegunci (Fugitives, 1981), Vere i zavere (Faith and Treason, 1983), Kapo (1987), Široka vrata (The Wide Door, 1989), Koje volimo (Those We Love, 1990).

“It’s like people. Even nations borrow from each other. Nothing is born in a vacuum, nothing develops from itself alone… All life is imitation.” — The Use of a Man

In 2016 the “Aleksandar Tišma” Foundation was established, which since 2019 has awarded the annual “Aleksandar Tišma” Literary Prize. The first laureate was Hungarian writer Darvasi László for his book Winter Morning.