Gojko Čelebić

Gojko Čelebić (Cyrillic: Гојко Челебић) (born 1958) is a Montenegrin writer and diplomat.

Čelebić was born in Podgorica, Montenegro (at that time part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). He finished high school in Cetinje, Montenegro. Čelebić went on to study at the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Law, Serbia and Podgorica, Montenegro. He then graduated from DAMU (Prague, in that time Czechoslovakia) in 1989 with a degree in dramaturgy. During the dissident movement in East Europe, through which Čelebić build himself as a creator of similar works, beginning in the 1980s he directed numerous theatrical pieces of dissident writers and began to publish dramas, poetry, short stories and novels. He also spent some time as a Prague student in Schauspielhaus, Berlin in 1987 as he participated in a seminar on Bertolt Brecht. In 1989 he received a master's degree in Prague through his thesis on Vsevolod Meyerhold.

Čelebić's political career began with a position as the minister of culture in Montenegro, in the government of Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, a mandate that lasted from 1993 to 1996. Following which he served as the ambassador of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Argentina for the period between 1998 and 2002, (submitted credentials to President Carlos Saúl Menem on the August 12, 1998). During the same period, Čelebić also served as a non-residing ambassador to Uruguay, (submitted credentials to President Julio Maria Sanguinetti on the November 11, 1998). In addition, he served as a non-residing ambassador to Paraguay during the same time, (submitted credentials to the President Raúl Cubas Grau on February 9, 1999). Following these mandates, he was appointed minister-counselor at the Embassy of Serbia and Montenegro in Japan from 2005 until Montenegro's Independence in 2006. Currently Čelebić serves as a Deputy Permanent Representative of Montenegro to the United Nations in New York.

By a literary vocation, Čelebić is a novelist, channeling the traditional European philosophical novel. Nevertheless, his literary historical interests are linked to European baroque, and aspects related to south Slavic languages and culture, especially things dealing with medieval and baroque Kotor. The most significant influence on his literary development, which became evident in his work, was the American (and later European) Hippie movement. In addition, the dissident literature such as that of Milovan Djilas and Vladimir Nabokov as well as numerous writers of his own generation in Poland, Germany, and Russia have been very significant in the process of his artistic creation.

In the beginning of the 1990s, Čelebić founded and directed two anthological projects. The first was a collection of novel published in twenty volumes, which presents the anthology of Montenegrin novels in the 20th century. The second, of which he is also the creator, is a complete anthology of the Montenegrin literature that has been in development for the last thousand years. These works were created in four languages: Latin, Italian, Serbian and Church Slavonic. It has also been published by his conduct in twenty-three volumes in a collection entitled Literature of Montenegro 12th to 19th century. Čelebić is a polyglot (fluent in English, French, Czech, Russian, and Spanish).

Selected works Čelebić's works, that is special publishings of his books, translations, essays, dramas, criticism, political pieces, translations of his work in numerous languages, newspaper articles, reviews, etc. written between 1976 and 2004 total 416 titles.