Aco Shopov, (Shtip,20 December 1923 – Skopje, 20 April 1982) – soldier, poet, translator, essay writer, first editor of Mlad Borec, editor of many literature magazines in Macedonia, ambassador in Senegal (1972-1976), president of the ex-Association of Literature Translators of Yugoslavia. He was a member of the Macedonian P.E.N. centre, as well as of Writers’ Association of Macedonia since its foundation (1947). He is one of the most deserving that the Macedonian poetry in a relatively short time ovarcame the collectivistic and sociorealistic tones. With his intimism, he opened the doors to the Macedonian poetry expression towards modernism. Critics organize his poetry into four circles: the first one (1944-1950), that starts with his first poetry book Poems, and ends with On Gramos; the second one consisted of his work outlined with his two collections of poetry Verses about Pain and Joy (1952) and Wind Carries a Nice Weather (1957), ; the third circle is mainly in the sign of his two most significant poetry collections Non-Existence (1963), and Ashes Fortune-Teller (1970), whereas the fourth circle is marked by his two last books The Poem of the Black Woman (1976), A Tree on the Hill (1980). The book that was a turning point not only for Shopov, but also for the whole Macedonian literature in general, was the collection Verses about Pain and Joy. Namely, this book shoke the strong fortifications of the sociorealistic model of writing at the time. In that 1952, the controverse book by Shopov initiated and awoke the decade of confrontation between the realists and the modernists. They would dispute the nature of the realistic art, its popularity and the possibility, i.e. the impossibility of its revival in 20th century, the importance of acquaintance of artistic discoveries from the Western European lietratures, the global experience of the avant-gardism and modernism. The real Shopov as a poet, however, came out of his third circle. The terms “non-existence” and “black sun” from his poetry lexis still preserve their mystical powers and do not ceise being a challenge and stimulus to various critical judgements and decryptions. Works: poetry: Poems (1944), The Track of Youth (with S. Janevski, 1947), On Gramos (1950), With our Hands (1950) Verses about Pain and Joy (1952), Merge into the Silence (1955), Wind Carries a Nice Weather (1957), Non-Existence (1963), YUS-Universum (1968), Aches Fortune-Teller (1970), The Poem of the Black Woman (1976), A Tree on the Hill (1980).