Miljenko Jergović

Miljenko Jergović
Miljenko Jergović in Graz, November 2012.
Born	(1966-05-28) 28 May 1966 (age 50) Sarajevo, SFR Yugoslavia
Occupation	Short story writer, novelist and columnist
Nationality	Bosnian
Ethnicity	Croat
Alma mater	University of Sarajevo
Period	1988–present

Miljenko Jergović (born 28 May 1966) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian and Croatian prose writer. Jergović currently lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia, having moved there in 1993.

Born in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia, Jergović is one of the most colorful figures of the public scene, polemicist without mincing words that slowly turns into a star of European literature. He is not shy to discuss about literature, the differences between Zagreb and Sarajevo, Kusturica and Aralica, Ivan Lovrenović and those who attacked him, and about how Sarajevo today, and how it (once) or is not any (now). Miljenko Jergović already set up in the pose of the classics, which do not tolerate human weakness, moral deviation and ideological diversion.

Jergović received his M.A. in literature from the Sarajevo University. While at high-school, he started working as a journalist in printed and electronic media, as a contributor to literary and youth magazines, and was soon recognized as Croatia’s media correspondent from Sarajevo. Jergović is one of the most widely read and translated writers of the younger generation in the South Slav region. Only 3% of translated books are translated into English, while the rest are English to other languages. Out of 134,000 books published every year in the United States, only 300 are literary translations. One New York literary press, Archipelago, selected Miljenko Jergovic’s work in their efforts to locate literary talent worldwide. Critics praise his storytelling skills, his ability to create a compelling atmosphere, his lyricism and his sentimentality, his immersion in history and his ability to incorporate tradition into contemporary prose. Some critics, however, consider his later works to be too lengthy, too insistent on the intertwining of different nations’ destinies, as well as too arbitrary. They believe that the voice of the omniscient narrator is too pronounced. Praised or criticized, Jergovic is doubtlessly one of the most important contemporary writers in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has received numerous literary awards, both domestic and foreign.

Jergović has written in his novels and stories about his great grandfather with German roots and his family, about his uncle who was sent by the parents to the enemy army and died as an enemy soldier, and about other important and not so important figures from his childhood. He mixed fact and fiction, brought them to life and extended their lives. He has told their stories many times in many places and forms, because he cannot detach himself from his identity,