Academician Tomislav Ketig

Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Vojvodina since 2013.

Writer and encyclopedist.

Born on September 17th 1932 in Nova Gradiška, Croatia.

He studied in 1959 at the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade. He graduated Yugoslav literature and south-Slavic languages in 1973 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad.

He was editor and editor-in-chief at the publishing house “Progres” (1959-65) and editor-in-chief for Serbo-Croatian literary production at the publishing house “Forum” (1966-76), both in Novi Sad. He was secretary in the Yugoslav Lexicographic Institute in Zagreb, and afterwards the editor-in-chief in the Redaction for Vojvodina in the edition “Yugoslav encyclopedia” until 1992, when he was retired.

As a member of the Literary Society of Vojvodina he was secretary, then president of the Society (1969-1975). He was also vice-president of the Union of Yugoslav Writers (1975-78). He is a member of the Society of Croatian Writers and the international PEN.

Awards: October Award of City of Novi Sad (2002), Award of the Literary Society of Vojvodina for overall achievement (2009) and Medal “Fraternity and unity with silver rays”.

His works were published during sixty years in all relevant cultural, literary and weekly magazines in former Yugoslavia. His plays were performed in theatres in Novi Sad, Subotica and Pirot, and his TV and radio plays were performed in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, Budapest, Vienna, Saarbruecken, Cologne and Hilversum.

He wrote a few hundred articles for encyclopedias. Most important are his monographs Culture in Yugoslavia 1918-1988 and Science in Yugoslavia 1918-1988, the only historical studies of the kind until today, published in Yugoslav encyclopedia volume VI (Zagreb 1990).

Books

Poetry: Comeback of Prometheus (Novi Sad,1962); Testament (Novi Sad,1981 „Stražilovo“ award); Poemes and balades (Zagreb, 2002). Essays: Dreamers and Dawn snapshoters (Novi Sad, 1975). Plays: Darkenings (Novi Sad, 1969). Novels: Blind voyagers (Subotica-Belgrade, 1978); Crazy years (Novi Sad, 1979, Belgrade, 2009); Eagle of Velebit (Subotica, 2007); Children of the Cancer (Zagreb, 2007); The Long Shadow of Dawning (Novi Sad, 2007, translated into German in Munich, 2011, Grand Prix of the Government of Baden-Württemberg at the international literary competition in Sindelfingen, Germany), Queen’s Gambit (Matica hrvatska, Subotica, 2014).

Plays:

In theatres: Astronauts (Pirot, Novi Sad 1963); Pink night (Subotica,1964); Kulosphera (Novi Sad, 1972). 1932 in Nova Gradiška (Croatia). On TV: The Life goes on (TV Novi Sad, 1977); Crazy stone on border (TV Novi Sad, 1977); Put Oil on Flame (Belgrade, 1978).
On radio: Nocturno of Driver (Novi Sad, Festival JRT – award for best play, Budapest, 1963); Donkey Ears of Emperor Trajan (Novi Sad, Belgrade, Festival JRT Ohrid, 1965, Vienna, Budapest, Saarbruecken, Cologne, Skopje, Hilversum 1967); The last days of Syracuse (Budapest, Sarajevo, Novi Sad, 1969).

Other cultural activities:

Editor, co-author and author of the preface for a multilingual anthology Poets of Vojvodina (Serbo-Croat, English, French and Russian; Novi Sad, 1983); Co-author of the anthology Yugoslav poetry of NLB and revolution (Editor-in-chief P. Matvejević, Zagreb, 1983); Author of prefaces for books by M. Kovač and A.Vuletić. Selector of biographies from Vojvodina and Serbia for editions of the American Bibliographical Institute.

He translated from English works of E. A. Po, J. London, E. Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, D. Thomas, A. Panshin and J. Symons.

His works were translated into German, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, French, Macedonian, Slovenian, Albanian, Slovak, Ruthenian, Romanian, Russian, and Swedish.