Daniela Andonovska-Trajkovska (born February 3, 1979, Bitola, North Macedonia) is poetess, scientist, editor, literary critic, doctor of pedagogy, university professor. She works at the Faculty of Education-Bitola, St. “Kliment Ohridski” University-Bitola, Republic of North Macedonia and teaches the courses: Methodology of Teaching Language Arts, Creative Writing, Critical Literacy, Methodology of Teaching Early Reading and Writing, etc. She is co-founder of the University Literary Club “Denicija PFBT UKLO” and also of the Center for Literature, Art, Culture, Rhetoric and Language at the Faculty of Education-Bitola. She is a member of the Macedonian Writers’ Association, and The Bitola Literary Circle, and she was president of the Macedonian Science Society Editorial Council (for two mandates). She is editor in chief of the literary journal “Rast”/ “Growth” issued by the Bitola Literary Circle, and also - editor in chief of the International Journal “Contemporary Dialogues” (Macedonian Science Society), and editor of “Literary Elements” Journal (Perun Artis), several poetry and prose books. Besides her scientific work published in many international scientific journals (over 100 articles), and one university book “Critical Literacy”, she writes poetry, prose and literary critics. She has published one prose book: “Coffee, Tea and the Red Sky” (2019), co-authored one poetry book for children and 8 poetry books: “Word about the Word” (2014), “Poems for the Margins” (2015), “Black Dot” (2017), Footprints” (2017), “Three” (2019), “House of Contrasts” (2019), “Electronic Blood” (2019), and “Math Poetry” (2020). She has won special mention at the Nosside World Poetry Prize (UNESCO, 2011), the award for the best unpublished poem at the Macedonia Writers’ Association Festival (2018), “Krste Chachanski” prize for prose (2019), National “Karamanov” Poetry Prize for poetry 2019, Macedonian Literary Avant-garde (2020), “Abduvali Qutbiddin” (third, 2020, Uzbekistan), Premio Mondiale "Tulliola- Renato Filippelli" in Italy (2021) and the most important national award for poetry “Aco Shopov” (by Macedonian Writers’ Association in 2021 for the book “Math Poetry”). Her poetry was published in a number of anthologies, literary magazines and journals both at home and abroad, and her works are translated into: English, Serbian, Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Romanian, Polish, Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Vietnamese, Uzbek, Bengali, German, and Italian language. She has translated many literary works from English, Serbian and Bulgarian language into Macedonian and vise versa.
WINTER MOSAIC
The cells of the winter, for which
I know how many crystals has drawn on the eyelashes of the waiting
and with how many melted snowflakes
she kisses me when I sleep,
are collecting in my equinox
They go down on my vertical “I”
so they can see themselves on the other side of the mirror
- with all of the question marks that are waking up
on the foggy surface of breathing
They are placing like pebbles in the mosaic of what has already happened
And there – the darkness inhabits the irises
because she knows that the dotted image of the memory
will never be complete
without the shadow’s gaze on it.
FAKE MUSIC NOTES
They are rolling down on the podium
of the fake grins of our overeating time
that sticks 20 Euros on the forehead
of the lame clarinetist
and he knows very well
that starched suits cannot dance on the meter
of 7/8 (3+2+2)
because only the ones with a soul can
- therefore he sells fake music notes
on a shiny paper
HOUSE OF CARDS
All the volcanoes on the planet of a man
are full of fire
that drains over the house of cards’ roof
There are no wild or domestic animals,
or baobabs, roses, foxes, nor snakes
- only – He himself, the Earth and the sky
There is a homeless young woman
living under his skin
That is why his skin is always young,
and his volcanoes are creating life on Earth
with lava of words
THE HOUSE THAT SHINES
In the middle of the blind gazes
and the square in the center of the city
In the middle of the coffee sips and the chess game
under the time without watches
In the middle of the shop windows full of images of the past
and the moving stairs that go nowhere
a hidden house lives
Moss of sighs grows on her skin
while two watery bodies are burning in the heart
of the hidden house that lives under my skin
TWO KEYS
I live with a cat
that multiplies in my dream
and takes all shapes of the time
in the ruins between Parthenon and Heraclea
and the Templars and Michelangelo
and the Great Depression and the rebellions of our collective memory
and when I see all of our lives
in the green eyes of the darkness
that purrs quietly on the porch of the house
the keyhole starts to release
and frees all of the passwords that we have been locking ourselves in
and you tell me:
“Look how the time is being unlocked
by these two wooden keys:
the first one is me, and the second one is you”.
and then I release that shadow
that meows in the dream
and let her wander all around the city
so she can find the keys hidden in the five-line music notebook
the one that is me, and the other one that is you
