Vanja Šunjić, Arman Fatić, Adnan Bajrović
On the Relay of Youth, May 25th, an informal and non-profit Literary Collective (Književna Zadruga) publishes its first four literary editions: The Heart is in the Shape of a Triangle by Vanja Šunjić, Meddah and the Cup and Sarajevo Dream by Arman Fatić, and Spacewalks with a Keyboard by Adnan Bajrović.
In past, this date meant a lot to young people. Today some don't even know about it. The activities of the Collective are an homage to that day. Instead of talking about how it used to be good, the trio Šunjić, Fatić, Bajrović decided to do something concrete. Instead of glorifying the past, they are building a better present.
The Literary Collective was formed from a long-standing friendship between Adnan Bajrović, Vanja Šunjić and Arman Fatić, which began in 2018 at the Literary Festival Bookstan, when all three were scholarship holders of Bookstan's workshop for literary critics and entered the world of literature for the first time. The aim of the collective is to help young authors complete their debut manuscripts, and to publish and distribute them. The collective does not resist and oppose conventional publishing, but wants to show and explain to young authors in a practical way, the advantages and disadvantages of publishing / self-publishing and elements of such process, in order to step on the literary scene.
The famous trio was quickly joined by a large number of friends from the literary scene who decided to help them with their experience and knowledge. They are now publishing four manuscripts, and after that, several of them are planned, under the same conditions, so they did the complete preparation and design themselves, at minimal cost. The Literary Collective exists for all those who are curious and courageous, who do not want to wait for publishers and procedures, but have the strength and will roll up their sleeves and do something on their own.
Although the collective appreciates art and believes that everyone should be paid for what they do, aware of the economic situation in which young authors find themselves, and with new experiences offered to them for free by more experienced colleagues, they are now available to all those who want to publish their debuts.
Socialism as a concept of equality and solidarity is very important, but since the members of the collective are a generation that has not tasted it, they are aware that they have no right to be nostalgic and talk about how it used to be better, but they are obliged to rewrite some good practices in the system we live in, fighting for human rights, breaking down social and gender stereotypes, fighting patriarchy and being a constant support to the LGBTIQ + movement.
The new socialism is not reflected in the occupation of existing factories (which no longer exist) and companies (which are on the verge of collapse) and workers' self-government, but in the beginning of new concepts in which everyone, both those who start them and those who join later, gravitate towards a single, common good and evenly and equally distribute of duties, obligations, burdens and risks that this type of a project carries with it.
The Heart is in the Shape of a Triangle by Vanja Šunjić follows a girl caught in the middle of her parents' divorce. Written from the perspective of a younger teenager, the book provides a realistic account of a toxic love affair and a decaying marriage, and an infantile, repetitive pattern in which women / mothers / wives / daughters often find themselves in patriarchal societies.
Arman Fatić’s Meddah and a Cup, accompanies Imran, a narrator who, with a cup of coffee, emerges from the axis of time and embarks on a path of self-exploration through analogies and history. Each text brings a new narrative from Turkish history, politics, art, culture, but what makes these stories interconnected, both structurally and concisely, are the reasons why they are told.
Sarajevo Dream is story collection following Orhan, a young man in his twenties who returns to his hometown after years of absence from the world, which is becoming more empty every day. The stories from Sarajevo Dream are charged with reflections from the edge of the political and social toxicity of Bosnia and Herzegovina on one hand, and on the other hand is a general longing and desire to stay in the homeland.
In his first poetry collection Spacewalks with a Keyboard, in about fifty poems, Adnan Bajrović goes through the spheres of the micro- and macrocosm, at the same time capturing the history of world literature on which he based his work. Divided into five distinctive chapters, the poems deal with the issue of numerous situations from everyday life. Often wrapped in the poet's personal experience or attitude, the poems speak of the young artist's position in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s society, and about the social and economic conditions that surround it.
From June 21st, the books will be available for sale and at literary festivals and promotions throughout the region.
Pre-order books via the following page (link).