GRADIMIR STOJKOVIĆ PASSES AWAY: Author of the famous book “Hajduk in Belgrade” dies at 78!

Gradimir Stojković, the writer of the renowned book Hajduk in Belgrade, has passed away at the age of 78. The sad news was confirmed by the children’s magazine Zmaj on its Instagram profile.

“With great sorrow, we received the news that at the age of 78, after a short illness, the writer Gradimir Stojković, whose Hajduk in Belgrade we all read, has passed away,” the magazine announced on social media.

Stojković was the most-read children’s prose writer in the past 30 years in the former Yugoslavia. All his books saw multiple editions (Hajduk in Belgrade over twenty, with a circulation of more than 500,000 copies). His poems and stories were translated into English, French, Italian, German, Russian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Macedonian.

Born on March 3, 1947, in the Banat village of Mramorak, he showed great writing talent from an early age. In the third grade, he won his first literary award, the “Zmaj Award”, for a poem that, unfortunately, has not been preserved.

After completing the eighth grade in 1961, he moved with his family to Pančevo, where he enrolled in the Nikola Tesla Technical School, specializing in electrical engineering. That same year, he became a member of Pančevo’s “Atelje mladih” (Young Artists’ Studio), a gathering place for young actors, directors, painters, musicians, writers, journalists, and filmmakers.

Although he initially studied electrical engineering, he soon abandoned it and instead pursued a degree at the Higher Pedagogical School. After graduation, he worked as a technical education teacher at Đura Daničić Elementary School.

Passion for Children’s Film

Stojković became involved in children’s filmmaking, founding a Photo-Cinema Club at the school, followed by the Young Talent Studio. The photos and films created by children under his mentorship won numerous awards in Yugoslavia and abroad. He continued working as a teacher until 1995.

During the difficult years of 1993-94, he worked with UNICEF and OXFAM on children’s programs titled “Let’s Play” in refugee centers across Serbia.