Dubravka Ugrešić

Over the past three decades, Dubravka Ugrešic established herself as one of Europe’s most distinctive novelists and essayists. Ugrešic took degrees in Comparative and Russian Literature, and pursued parallel careers as both a writer and as a scholar in Zagreb. In 1991, when war broke out in former Yugoslavia, Ugrešic took a firm anti-war stance, critically dissecting retrograde Croatian and Serbian nationalism, the stupidity and criminality of war, and as a result she became the target of nationalist journalists, politicians and fellow writers. Subjected to prolonged public ostracism and persistent media harassment, she left Croatia in 1993. Ugrešic’s work is marked by a rare combination of irony, polemic, and compassion. She won of several major literary prizes, among others the Jean Améry Essay Prize and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.