Matija Bećković is a Serbian writer and poet. He is one of the most prominent Serbian poets of the 20th century and a full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Bećković was born on November 29, 1939, in Senta, in the Serbian province of Vojvodina (then Danube Banate, Kingdom of Yugoslavia), to a family of Montenegrin Serbs. He graduated from the Valjevo Gymnasium in Valjevo in 1958. It was during his gymnasium years in Valjevo that he published his first poem, in the journal 'Mlada Kultura'. Furthermore, it was also in Valjevo that Bećković met Vera Pavladoljska, to whom the poem of the same name, published in 1960, was dedicated. This poem remains one of his most widely known and read poems. Beckovic went on to marry Pavladoljska, and he remained married to her until her death.
Upon graduating from the Valjevo gymnasium, he entered the University of Belgrade, graduating with a degree in Yugoslav and world literature. He became a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1983, becoming a full member in 1991.
He lives in Belgrade since 1960.