Paata Shamugia

poet and essayist

Paata Shamugia (1983) is a poet, an essayist, and a prominent voice in contemporary Georgian literature. He came to wider public attention with his provocative book of poems Anti-Tqaosani (Anti-Panther’s Skin, 2006), in which he engaged in a polemic against one of the most significant works of the Georgian literary canon – the twelfth-century national epic poem The Man in the Panther’s Skin – sparking a heated public debate and calls for his work to be banned. Shamugia’s poetry is characterised by irony, linguistic playfulness, satire, and a critical stance towards both national tradition and the current political situation. He has won the prestigious SABA Georgian National Literature Prize twice, for the collections Daujdómeli (Akathist, 2011) and Šizogadoeba (Schizo-National Poems, 2014). He is the founder and editor of the contemporary art portal demo.ge. He studied philology at Tbilisi State University and served as president of the Georgian PEN Club from 2018 to 2022.