Ilija Đurović was born in 1990 in Podgorica, Montenegro. Đurović writes prose, poetry, plays and movie scripts. His first book of prose, They Do It so Beautifully in Those Great Romantic Novels, came out 2014 in Yellow Turtle Press, a small Montenegrin publishing house he runs. This was followed by Black Fish (2016) and the poetry book Brink (2018), which received an award at a literature festival in Belgrade. Đurović has been living in Berlin since 2013 as a freelance author. In 2019 he was co-winner of the Montenegrin theatre award for the best contemporary drama, Sleepers. His first novel, Sampas, was shortlisted for NIN Award and “Meša Selimović” Award for Best Novel of the Year for 2021, and also for the European Union Prize for Literature.