Paata Shamugia (პაატა შამუგია, b. 1983) is native of Abkhazia and currently lives in Tbilisi. He is a distinguished personality in Georgian poetry. He graduated from Tbilisi State University (faculty of philology). The author became known to a wide circle of readers thanks to his book “Anti-Tqaosani” (wordplay on the famous Georgian medieval epic poem The Knight in Panther’s Skin). The book provoked much controversy and for several months was widely discussed in the Georgian press and TV, as it was boldly taking issue with the country’s most prominent literary text. Three years later, in 2010, he published his second poetry collection “Advantage”, which immediately attracted attention, but, unlike his previous compilation, did not provoke any criticism or cause a stir. On the opposite, the book received very positive reviews from critics and readers alike. In 2011, Paata Shamugia received the Saba literary award for the best collection of poems “Akathistos”. In 2012, the art magazine Hot Chocolate named him Person of the Year. Currently, he works as an editor for the magazine Liberali and writes reviews and critical essays. He is also editor in chief of the contemporary art portal demo.ge. Since 2011, Paata Shamugia has been a member and web-editor of Georgian PEN Center. In 2014, the publishing house Intelekti has printed another challenging collection by him, titled “Schizosociety”, which won another SABA award and thus made Paata Shamugia the first contemporary poet in Georgia to win twice this prestigious award in the same category. His poetry has been translated into English, Russian, French, Turkish and German and published in the Anthology of Georgian Poetry through the ages: “Ich aber will dem Kaukasos zu…” (publ. by Pop Verlag, 2015, Germany). (Source: book.gov.ge)