Ivana Bodrožić’s novel 'Sons, Daughters' longlisted for Dublin Literary Award 2025

The English translation of the novel Sons, Daughters by Ivana Bodrožić has been longlisted for the prestigious Dublin Literary Award 2025. The English edition was published by the acclaimed American publisher Seven Stories Press in 2024 and translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać. The Croatian edition was published by Hermes Publishing in 2020 (first edition) and has since had four reprints. “Sons, Daughters” was also awarded the regional Meša Selimović Literary Award for the Best Novel.

Celebrating 30 years of excellence in world literature, The Dublin Literary Award is the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English, with a generous prize of €100,000. The longlist includes the best fiction titles from Africa, Europe, Asia, the US, Canada, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, reflecting diversity of language and form, and contains 16 debut novels and 26 works of translated fiction. If the winning title is a translation, the author receives €75,000, while the translator is awarded €25,000.  

The novel “Sons, Daughters” is in the elite company of 70 literary works and competes alongside books by Colm Tóibín, Paul Lynch, Muriel Barbery, and Stefania Auci, among other renowned authors. 

The finalists will be announced on March 25, and the winner on May 22. The decision will be made by a jury chaired by the great Dutch writer Gerbrand Bakker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frankfurt Book Fair 2019: Narrating the 'Other' in 'Big' and 'Small' Literatures

The question of identity has been the central question of the so called “small” literatures from the second half of the 19th century onward. As history has shown, the search for identity does not end with the moment in which an ethnic or a national group achieves sovereignty. It is a search that starts anew with each encounter with other languages and cultures, a search inspiring the question of belonging that is common to both “big” and “small” literatures.

As will be shown in the conversation with Croatian authors Slobodan Šnajder and Kristian Novak and Austrian author Norbert Gstrein, the increasing interest for the perception of the self and "Other" is a shared feature of both Croatian as well as German literature. The authors will discuss the necessary prerequisites and features of a “small” literature with respect to language and other cultural factors. In addition to that, they will focus on the question how literature constitutes the "Other", i.e. construes diversity and contributes to a more democratic society and whether identities construed within literature are historically conditioned.

Needless to say, this discussion will also have to take into consideration that writing the “Other” also means changing the image of the self and possibly has some unwanted side effects. Finally, all these questions will be put in the context of recent global phenomena such as the migrant crisis which has significantly influenced European societies and their ideas of inter- and multiculturality. 


Date: Friday, October 18, 19:00 h
Place: Kreativ-Agentur plan-J, Kleyerstraße 46-48, 60326 Frankfurt am Main
Participants: Slobodan Šnajder, Norbert Gstrein, Kristian Novak
Moderation: Jelena Spreicer

Access: free of charge (with the fair ticket)
Language: German
 

** (c) Frankfurter Buchmesse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Titles Published by the Croatian-American Publisher Sandorf Passage Nominated for Prestigious International Literary Awards

Sandorf Passage was founded in South Portland, Maine in 2020 by the Zagreb-based publisher Ivan Sršen and his American colleague, freelance literary editor Buzz Poole. Since then, Sandorf Passage has published twenty-five titles, primarily high-quality literature in translation. Fourteen of those translations are works by Croatian authors (including Robert Perišić, Nada Gašić, Monika Herceg, Ivana Bodrožić, Tatjana Gromača, and Bekim Sejranović).

In addition to Croatian literature, Sandorf Passage showcases outstanding works from the region, as well as notable titles of European and global literature, translated by some of the finest translators in the field. Their editions have received excellent critical reception in the US and the UK, including Robert Perišić's novel A Cat at the End of the World (Brod za Issu), Lejla Kalamujić's short story collection Call Me Esteban (Zovite me Esteban), and My Home Somewhere Else (Moj dom negdje drugdje) by the Italian author Federica Marzi. 

Last week, two of Sandorf Passage's novels were longlisted for two significant English-language literary awards:

- The English translation of the Bulgarian literary classic The Case of Cem (Slučaj Džem) by Vera Mutafchieva, translated by the Booker International Prize-winner Angela Rodel, was among 10 works longlisted to the U.S.-based Republic of Consciousness Prize, dedicated exclusively to independent publishers.

- The English translation of the first contemporary Slovenian novel In Elvis's Room (U Elvisovoj sobi) by Sebastijan Pregelj, exploring the collapse of Yugoslavia, translated by Rawley Grau, was longlisted for the prestigious Dublin Literary Award. The winner will be announced in May 2025, and will receive a prize of €100,000. (/)

Both novels are published by Sandorf in Croatian translation (The Case of Cem, translated from Bulgarian by Ksenija Banović, and In Elvis’s Room, translated from Slovenian by Anita Peti-Stantić) and are available to Croatian readers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Croatian authors and publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019

On this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, held from 16th to 19th October 2019, the 56 m2 long Croatian national stand will be located in the Hall 5.0 (D117). Twenty Croatian publishers will exhibit at the stand: Evenio, Fraktura, Funditus, Ibis grafika, Jesenski i Turk, Kašmir promet, Kršćanska sadašnjost, Mate, Matica hrvatska, Meandar Media, Medicinska naklada, Naklada Ljevak, Naklada OceanMore, Naša djeca, Profil, Sandorf, Spiritoso, Školska knjiga, Verbum and Vuković & Runjić.

A special place on the stand will be reserved for 10 leading fiction, non-fiction and children’s titles chosen by the selection board members Diana Matulić, Gordana Farkaš Sfeci and Emica Calogjera Rogić:

- Slobodan Šnajder: “Age of Brass’’
- Kristian Novak: "Gypsy, but the Fairest of Them All"
- Damir Karakaš: "Celebration"
- Igor Rudan: "Evil Air"
- Branko Čegec: "Rise and Fall of Koševsko hill"
- Maša Kolanović: "Bugs and Other Eerie Stories"
- Olja Savičević Ivančević: "Singer in the Night"
- Nikola Petković: "A Journey to Gonars"
- Zdenko Bašić, Tanja Konforta: "Goldsmith’s Treasure"
- Mate Janković: "The Croatian Cookbook"


In the Children’s literature section, the recent production of Croatian children’s books will be presented through the works of illustrators Zdenko Bašić, Andrea Petrlik, Vanda Čižmek, Vendi Vernić, Ivana Guljašević Kuman, Uma Huseinović and Ana Kadoić. Comic books, selected by Davor Schunk, will be presented as well.

The town of Rijeka, as the European Capital of Culture 2020 will receive a special recognition. Organized events with Slobodan Šnajder, Kristian Novak and Roman Simić will be held at the stand, and more important, after a long time the Croatian authors will be included in the official general programme of the Fair.

The organizer of the Croatian programme on the Frankfurt Fair, Jelena Spreicer from the department of German studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, has announced the programme ‘’Croatia and Rijeka 2020 in the Heart of Europe’’.

Within that programme, two official encounters with Croatian authors (Slobodan Šnajder, Kristian Novak and Roman Simić) will take place outside of the exhibition space, in Kreativ-Agentur plan-J, Kleyerstraße 46-48.

          >>  Narrating the 'Other' in 'Big' and 'Small' Literatures

          >>  Croatia and Rijeka 2020 in the Heart of Europe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coveted design award for Narcisa Vukojević and Lana Cavar

For their work on the design of Heart of the Land by Gloria Lujanović, the Zagreb designer duo, Narcisa Vukojević and Lana Cavar have just won the prestigious international award for book design in Japan: Tokyo Type Director Annual Award.

Long-time collaborators, Vukojević and Cavar have been selected among 3675 applicants. Heart of the Land, was published jointly by the Croatian National Theatre in Mostar and Zagreb-based publisher OceanMore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moderna vremena on Songs from Lora

This collection is a document of author’s deep revolt, continuing a special lineage of subversive dark-humoured and provocative poetry, and representing one of the most pessimistic and heaviest texts of contemporary Croatian literature.

Darko Milošić

Darko Milošić (Zagreb, 1967) studied Croatian language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He worked as a high school literature professor, and has translated popular/scientific literature in psychology, pedagogy, theology and journalism. Currently works as an editor in the publishing house Sandorf.

Foto: (c) Blog.vecernji.hr

Croatian illustrators at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair

This year’s exhibition of illustrators at the Bologna Book Fair, which showcases new talent since 1967., will feature illustrations from Saturn at the FUTURE Winter Swimming Pool by the Croatian illustrator Vendi Vernić!

This year, 4374 applications came in from 89 countries. The international jury first shortlisted 324 candidates, among which another Croatian illustrator, Agata Lučić with her new, unpublished works. The final selection counts 76 illustrations from 29 territories.

The exhibition will be open as part of the Bologna Book Fair, from March 31st to April 3rd, after which it sets on a 2-year tour across European cities of culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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