SANKOFA

As you swell up from my seed

I cocoon you with the songs of the slaves

for how else will you recognise me my daughter

when the world greets you with a wreath of silence

________________

Note: Sankofa is a mythical African (Ghanaian) bird often visually depicted as flying forward with its head turned backword. It represents the importance of understanding the past and learning from it in order to move forward.

Emilija Todorova PSM, is a Macedonian Australian writer. Born in Skopje, North Macedonia, in 1989 she migrated to Australia where she has held various managerial and senior leadership positions. She was engaged in a teaching capacity at the School of Modern Languages ​​- Macedonian Language at Macquarie University, Sydney for several years. Emilija started writing and  freelancing while still living in  her homeland. She was a regular contributor to the weekly student newspaper “Studentski zbor” as well as the Third Programme of Radio Skopje. She was one of the founders and deputy editor of the magazine for popular science “Activus”.  

Emilija has taken part in a number of poetry events in Macedonia and (then) Yugoslavia, including “Mlada Struga”, “Majski Poetski Sredbi” (winner of two first and one third prize), “Gordanino proleće” (selected among the ten best young poets in Yugoslavia), “Brankovo kolo” (awarded a prize for a cycle of poems), etc. She has also won awards in Australia for poetry written in the Macedonian language, as well as in Australia and in the US for poetry and written compositions in English. For her collection of poems “Gravity” Emilija received the “Stojan Hristov” 2022 Award at the Struga Poetry Evenings for the best poetry book by an expat. That same year she was a runner-up in the prestigious “Nova Makedonija” short story writing competition. Her poems have been published in literary magazines and  periodicals, and her work included in several anthologies of Macedonian immigrant poetry, in the poetry selection “Poems for Skopje” (“Feniks”, Skopje 2021) “Contemporary Short Literary Forms” (“Feniks”, Skopje 2021) and the Anthology of short stories 2022 (selection by the Fellowship of Australian Writers – NSW). Emilija translates from English, Macedonian, Serbian and Bulgarian. For exceptional achievements in her career she has been awarded, among others, the Australian Public Service Medal and a medal for advancing multicultural Australia.

For her collection of poems “Gravity” Emilija received the "Stojan Hristov" 2022 Award at the Struga Poetry Evenings for the best poetry book

by an expat. That same year she was a runner-up in the prestigious “Nova Makedonija” short story writing competition. Her poems have been published in literary magazines and  periodicals, and her work included in several anthologies of Macedonian immigrant poetry, in the poetry selection "Poems for Skopje" ("Feniks", Skopje 2021) "Contemporary Short Literary Forms" ("Feniks", Skopje 2021) and the Anthology of short stories 2022 (selection by the Fellowship of Australian Writers – NSW).  

Emilija translates from English, Macedonian, Serbian and Bulgarian.

For exceptional achievements in her career she has been awarded, among others, the Australian Public Service Medal and a medal for advancing multicultural Australia.