Ilija Jovanovic, born in 1950 in a Roma settlement in Rumska (Serbia). Through his father, who learned to read and write as a partisan, he developed a passion for literature as a child, which he remained devoted to throughout his life, both as a reader and a writer. He attended primary and secondary school and worked as a farm laborer. In 1971, he moved to Vienna, where he worked in a metal factory and later in hospitals as a pharmacy technician, acquiring Austrian citizenship. He was a long-time chairman of the Romano Centro in Vienna. In addition to numerous literary publications in magazines and anthologies, he published two volumes of poetry: Bündel - Budo (EYE Verlag 2000) and Vom Wegrand - Dromese rigatar (Drava Verlag 2006). Ilija Jovanovic, who was awarded the prestigious Exile Poetry Prize in November 2010, passed away on November 25, 2010, at the age of 60.