Biography

Dragan Todorovic is a writer and multimedia artist. Until 1995 he lived in Yugoslavia, where he was born and where he worked as journalist, editor, and TV personality. He started writing when he learned how to write. At first he wrote poetry, then stories, then essays, then cheques. His cheques invariably receive a warm welcome.

He studied law and journalism. Between 1977 and 1995 Dragan published exensively in leading magazines of ex-Yugoslavia. At some point, he had won the Best Young Journalist award. During the last six years of his life in Belgrade he published four books and spent more time working on radio and television. On radio, he worked as a host, writer and producer, among other things writing and directing 24 radio-plays for Radio Politika. He also made two TV documentaries and hosted over 150 TV shows.

He had two exhibitions in Belgrade and directed two theatre shows. He is in Serbian “Who is Who ”.

Dragan continued to write after moving to Canada. He published in Toronto Star, This, Saturday Night, NOW, Ottawa Citizen and other Canadian publications. In 1997 his article “Border Crossing” was nominated for the Canadian National Magazine Award. In 1998 he was part of the prestigious Creative Journalism program at Banff Centre for the Arts. His first book in English was published in 2000. The same year, he worked with Ken Finkleman as the script consultant on his TV series “Foreign objects” (episode “Evil”), where he got one of the leading roles, in spite of refusing to change his haircut.

For his multimedia work, Dragan won awards at the New York Festivals, John Caples International Awards, and Astound International Competition. Because of his never-ending love for radio, Dragan has recently started exploring the possibilities of sound, and made two projects for CBC Radio One. His most recent work was a sound-art piece for CBC Radio One and Deep Wireless Festival, titled “In My Language I am Smart”.

His writing was described as “fascinating, liquid storytelling, which leads the reader smoothly from the sociology of rock and roll, through brilliant essayistic insights, to the heavy, Hemingwayesque prose”.

Barbara Ehrenreich has asked him once for permission to use one of his articles as an example for her students of journalism. He considers that to be an extraordinary award.

Dragan’s writing was supported by Toronto Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

In September 2005 Dragan moved to England (was “sent to Coventry”), where he is currently working on a novel.