Benjamin Langer is the winner of the International Draghi Award for the translation of the novel "Piraeus" into German.

The jury, consisting of: Dr. Jana Mihajlovska, Dr. Zorica Nikolovska and Vladimir Jankovski, decided that this year's international "Dear" award should go to Benjamin Langer, university professor and translator, for the translation of the timeless novel "Piraeus" by Petre M. Andreevski.

The idea was prompted by the fact that this year marks the 90th anniversary of the author's birth, as well as the 44th anniversary of the publication of his most famous novel, which was published in a brilliantly translated German language by the prestigious publishing house "Gugolz" from Berlin. The novel caused a great literary reaction among the German audience. In one of the reviews of the work, the author Mirko Švanitz noted: "This novel is both a time machine and a living museum. Petre M. Andreevski leads the reader into the first half of the 20th century, narrating a huge family epic. Andreevski's language is firmly rooted in the rural dialect of his native village, which has secured the novel a place in world literature. Translator Benjamin Langer managed to translate the idiosyncratic and strict beauty of this language into German so exquisitely that it can already be considered a candidate for the Leipzig Literary Prize."

Benjamin Langer, born in 1976 in Erlangen, Germany, is a profound expert on the Macedonian language and literature. He studied German studies and art history in Bamberg and Budapest, and from 2005 to 2009 he taught at the Department of German Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology "Blaže Koneski". Through his translation work, he brought Macedonian literature closer to the German reading public, including the works of: Goce Smilevski, Branko Cvetkoski, Dejan Trajkoski, Rumena Bužarovska, Vlada Urošević, Petre M. Andreevski and others. In 2022, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier invited him as a special guest of the delegation accompanying him on his trip to Macedonia and Albania. In his speech in the Macedonian parliament, Steinmeier quotes precisely the translation of "Piraeus". In cooperation with the German Embassy in Skopje, Benjamin Langer will also be a professional participant in the second fellowship program "Declaring Europe" (2^and Publishing Europe Fellowship) in Skopje.

The international award "Dragi" for the most significant translation from Macedonian into a foreign language takes into account various parameters when a particular translation appears in another cultural environment. First of all - the level of the translation, but also the topicality, reviews, influence, stimulating interest in the author, recognition, increasing intercultural dialogue, etc. With this award, for the second year in a row, a serious incentive is given to all literary translators from the Macedonian language to approach the translation of Macedonian literature with great care and to more often decide to have the works of our authors included in the offer of publishing houses from Europe and the world.