The initiative for the establishment of the Institute of Macedonian Literature originates from 1978, coming from Slobodan Mickovic, Dushko Nanevski and Danilo Kocevski. This initiative was send to the Republic Secretariat for culture, which advanced the procedure for the establishment of the Institute. A special contribution in the establishment of the Institute was made by Prof. Georgi Stalev, Ph.D., Republic Secretary in the Republic Secretariat for culture (in today’s sense, this position was equivalent to a Minister in the Government) and a professor at the Philological Faculty at that instance. 
The initiative was supported by the Department of History of Literatures of the Nations of SFRY and the Department of Macedonian Language and South Slavic Languages from the Philological Faculty. The Department of History of Literatures of the Nations of SFRY formed a Commission for preparation of a project for the establishment of the Institute of Literature consisted by the following members: Kiril Penushliski, Ph.D., Aleksandar Spasov, Ph.D. and Tome Sazdov, Ph.D. The project was adopted on a Meeting of the Department held on 4th of June 1979 and forwarded to the faculty authorities. The Philological Faculty brought a Proposal-Decision for establishment of the organizational unit Institute of Literature on 25th of December 1979. The Proposal-Decision was signed by the Dean of the faculty Prof. Liljana Todorova, Ph.D. and the President of the Council of the faculty Prof. Milan Gjurchinov, Ph.D. The organization and the activity of the Institute of Literature was established after the obtained approval by the competent institutions (Republic Secretariat for science and education, Republic Secretariat for culture, University St. Cyril and Methodius, MANU, Institute of Macedonian Language “Krste Misirkov”, the Union for Scientific Activities etc.) and the referendum decisions. In practice, the research activities began on 1st of January 1982 with the employment of the first research fellows Gjorgji Pop-Atanasov, Ph.D. and Dushko Nanevski, Ph.D. First manager of the Institute of Literature was Prof. Vera Stojchevska-Antich, Ph.D.
The activities for independence of the Institute of Macedonian Literature started in December 1993. The idea began to realize in 1998 with forming of a Commission for establishment of the Institute of Macedonian Literature as a public scientific institution. Commission consisted of academic Milan Gjurchinov, Prof. Vera Stojchevska-Antich, Ph.D., Prof. Georgi Stalev, Ph.D., Prof. Aleksa Poposki, Ph.D. and Prof. Zekirija Neziri, Ph.D.