Writer, translator, publisher. Ilija Trojanow was born in Bulgaria in 1965. In 1971his parents fled with him and gained political asylum in Munich. A year later, the family moved to Kenya where his father worked as an engineer.
He studied law and ethnology in Munich. In 1989, he founded the Marino Publishing House, which specialised in African literature. In 1998, Trojanow moved to Bombay. He wrote reportages and essays from India for various publications.
Trojanow has received many literary awards, including the Bertelsmann-Literaturpreis at the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Wettbewerb 1995, the Marburger Literaturpreis in 1996 and the Adalbert von Chamisso prize in 2000. His books have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, Dutch and English, and some parts also into French, Polish and Arabic.
Ilija Trojanow resides in Cape Town, where he has lived since 2003.