This year’s winners of the regional award “Štefica Cvek” were announced in mid-September, in Sarajevo, as part of the PitchWise festival of women’s art and activism.
The regional literary community nominated as many as 153 books for this year’s, the third in a row, of “Štefica Cvek”.
Through several rounds of judging, the choice was eventually reduced to seven winners! Instead of choosing just one winner, “Štefica Cvek” celebrates the collective impact of these works that challenge conventions, encourage critical thought and offer a new perspective on the burning issues of our time.
The final literary selection named after the legendary heroine of the feminist classic Dubravka Ugrešić was decided by the members of the jury – Maja Abadžija, Dara Šljukić and Manja Veličkovska.
“We believe that the books we choose push the boundaries of contemporary literature in the Yugoslav space and create new worlds in which resistance and hope are possible again. All of these works are essential, and all deserve your attention as they continue to inspire dialogue and drive change,” the jury said in a statement.
Winners of the 2024 “Štefica Cvek” Literary Award
“Unique ID number”, by Lidija Dimkovska
“Unique Social Security Number” gets all the credit for masterfully blending geopolitical tensions with complex family dynamics. Exploring current issues caused by wars, occupation policies and neo-colonialisms, through which origin and class are psychologized, the novel is one of the rare examples of layered fictional brilliance. Through the character of Katerina, who tries to understand the actions of her silent father and caustic but fragile mother, the narrative is interested in losing and finding hope in the hushed past of the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus. Through the phrase "occupied desolation", this novel with a development line typical of decolonial futurism, problematizes the possibility of personal and collective renewal, and actively thinks about how devastated communities and individuals can still imagine a less painful future, untainted by colonialism and nationalism. We single out this piece for its subtle departure from narratives of past and loss and redirection of interest to all that can still be imagined.
“In the Chaos of Joy”, by Kalia Dimitrova
“In the Chaos of Joy” is a book that stands out for its bold wit, unpretentious cynicism and skill in finding joy in the narrow-minded culture of late capitalist and heteropatriarchal chaos. The collection conveys a sense of ease in dealing with issues of gender and sexuality, exposing the meanness and shallowness of the human obsession to classify and define everything. Dimitrova’s poetry is a contemporary ode that celebrates friendship and chosen family, the diversity of queer worlds, and all this makes us feel peace and joy in our small and necessary intimate chaos. In a time of general weakness, this book stands out for the fact that it faithfully and unreservedly conveys much-needed life’s hope.
“Four elbows inside”, by Eva Simčić
Rijeka-based author Eva Simčić's debut novel, "Four Elbows Inside", captivates with the authenticity of its immigrant story - The best country in the world is revealed in this text as a disappointment at best, and as a nightmarish Kafkaesque labyrinth at worst. The charming combination of bitterness and wit with which the narrator guides us through her settler daily life keeps her struggle with depression in focus, speaking honestly about the detours that must be taken in order to heal. Simčić skilfully interweaves essayistic discourse, illustration, medical diagnosis, and poetry into the novel text, creating a complex, yet drinkable work that exudes generational recognition. Searching for overpriced rented apartments, among twisted acquaintances, in the corridors of waiting rooms or the safety of memories, the narrator realizes that she has to go through a long and painful way if she does not understand that her medicine - and her home - are within herself.
“The foundation of the house”, by Marija Andrijašević
Marija Andrijašević achieved a precise balance between experimentalism and communicativeness in the book “Foundation of a house”. Each of the prose-poetic “blocks” that make up this book is dominated by a self-aware female voice that reflects on a topic that is not sufficiently discussed in local literature – the gender aspect of inheritance. When a brother hands over ownership of land to a sister, one of the oldest patriarchal customs in this region is violated – that land and property, at least as a rule, belong to the male heir. But for Marija Andrijašević, this circumstance is only the beginning of a meditation on belonging to the land, the house, the family, the village, herself… “Building” her prose-poetic dwelling from the idea, through the design to the performance, she also builds the allegory of the house as herself, and ultimately with a subtle feminist engagement, it touches on some completely universal topics such as the relationship between daughter and parent, brother and sister, the dilemma of creating one’s own family, love, work, loneliness, fear, death. The author’s thematic boldness is supported by a carefully designed concept and an exciting, unpretentious lyrical statement.
WOMEN OF BIH for Children
An illustrated journey with exceptional women from the past (Sarajevo Open Center, 2023, children's literature), authors: Adisa Bašić, Bjanka Alajbegović, Boriša Mraović, Emir Zametica, Enes Kurtović, Ferida Duraković, Lamija Begagić, Lamija Grebo, Lamija Milišić, Lejla Kalamujić, Nikolina Todorović. Sabina Fidahić, Selma Asotić, Tamara Zablocki, Zoran Ćatić After the last wave of popularity of collections of biographies of exceptional women, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the world, it seemed that this genre had exhausted its possibilities. The value of " Women of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Children" lies precisely in the fact that, relying on the rich tradition of the genre, and learning from it, they show its extensibility and layering. The pedagogical element was always present in similar books, and in " Women of BiH for Children" it was explicitly thought out and elaborated on the level of questions, instructions, tasks, and information. It is visually and spatially present as much as the biographies themselves. The authors of the book were clear that the value of the genre is not in dry data, but in its processing. This also applies to the biographies themselves, which in this book bridge the border between history and literature.
The house did not move, by Jelena Anđelovska
“The house did not move” is a poetic-drama-prose collection in which the poems take place on the roofs of buildings, in a house, in a refugee apartment. The experimental form is not a goal in itself, but it achieves a specific atmosphere and holds attention and reveals the conceptual thoughtfulness of the collection as a whole. The collection deals with the theme of the house from the refugee home-losing the home, through life in tenement apartments, inheriting the house, to the house as the headquarters of a lesbian organization. The success of this book is also reflected in dealing with topics such as war and various forms of violence – touching, clever, but without pathos and patheticness. What Jelena Andjelovska’s songs convey are not traumatic experiences, but brave, defiant confrontations of heroes and heroines with them, sometimes with despair, sometimes with humor, but always with an unwavering spirit.
“Scavengers of the Old World”, by Tea Tulić
Tee Tulić's novel is a melancholic and warm story about a family of three, and then two, on the Croatian coast, at the turn from the eighties to the present. The novel is about the loss of family and the loss of a bright future, written in poetic, yet precise and concise language. The melancholic tone does not dull the sharpness of the critical perspective on masculinity and war, nor the sharpness of anger at violence. The sharpness does not impair the wit of the narrator's perspective, but builds on the warmth of the relationship between daughter and father, and the tenderness of the daughter-narrator's portrayal of the characters of the parents. The Scavengers of the Old World is a rarely successful novel on every level, on the level of language, tone, composition, character characterization, depiction of relationships between characters, and even plot.
