Drago Štambuk

Who is Drago Štambuk?

Drago Štambuk is a Croatian physician, poet, essayist and an ambassador.

Štambuk was born in Selca on the island of Brač. He attended the gymnasium in Split, and the University of Zagreb School of Medicine.

He specialised in internal medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology in Zagreb, but worked and lived in London since 1983, where he was engaged in research of the diseases of liver and AIDS. At that early stage of awareness of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Štambuk was among the first researchers deeply engaged in trying to understand the now widely known and ubiquitous disease.

After Croatia declared its independence in 1991, he turned to diplomacy. In the sensitive period from 1991 until 1994, he served as the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Republic of Croatia to the United Kingdom. Afterwards, he became Croatia's ambassador in India and Sri Lanka, Egypt and a number of Arab countries. At Harvard University from 2001 to 2002, and became its Fellow. He has been also the ambassador of Croatia in Japan and South Korea from 2005 to 2010 and is ambassador in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela since 2011.

Dr Štambuk has published more than 40 books of poetry, which have been widely translated, and is regarded one of the leading Croatian contemporary poets. Raymond Carver named him "a real poet". His English books include Incompatible Animals, Black Wave, And the Sea is no More, as well as contributions to the magazine Ploughshares; "Language of Dismemberement/Loghat Al-Tamazzuq" in Arabic, "El viento de las estrellas oscuras" in Spanish with the forward by Antonio Skarmeta, "Pierre Nocturne" in French, "Black Wave/Kuroi Nami" and "From Nowhere/Museki Yori" in English and Japanese. He has been granted many international and national literary, arts and peace awards.