. 's memorial board in the
Park of Poetry in Struga 's memorial board 's memorial board 's memorial board The festival began in 1961 in
Struga, then
People's Republic of Macedonia with Macedonian poets only, while in 1963 it expanded its list of participants with poets from all around the former
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The
Miladinov Brothers Award was established for the best poetry book published between two consecutive festivals, which became the most important national poetry award. By 1966 the event turned into an international
cultural festival. The Golden Wreath international award was established in the same year and its first recipient was
Robert Rozhdestvensky. In 2003, in close cooperation with
UNESCO, the Festival established another international award called The Bridges of Struga, for a best debut poetry book by a young author. During its long successful existence, the festival has hosted about 4,000 poets, translators, essayists and literary critics from about 95 countries of the world. The festival has awarded some of the world's most eminent literary figures, including several
Nobel Prize for Literature winners such as
Joseph Brodsky,
Eugenio Montale,
Pablo Neruda and
Seamus Heaney, the first African member of the
French Academy Léopold Sédar Senghor who was also a
President of Senegal, the official royal
Poet Laureate Ted Hughes,
W. H. Auden who is regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and many others. A point of interest is that the festival often awarded foreign poets who were considered
dissidents in their countries, including for example the Russian exiled poet Joseph Brodsky, the
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, the American
beatnik Allen Ginsberg, the
Soviet bard Bulat Okudzhava and many others. In memory of the laureates, the Park of Poetry featuring memorial boards dedicated to each of them was established near the Struga Cultural Center. ==Organization==