The CEI Award for Young Writers is promoted by the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the Slovene Writers’ Association (SWA) within the Vilenica International Literary Festival. In the context of the extraordinary challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CEI and the SWA have n 2021 decided to revise the long-standing CEI Fellowship for Writes in Residence and provide a new concept to the initiative, launching the CEI Award for Young Writers. The Award aims at promoting the young generation of writers and supporting the circulation of their literary works through the translation in the languages of the CEI countries. The Award envisages the translation of one of the awardee’s works into Slovenian and the translation into another CEI language of the candidate’s choice.
The jury for the CEI Award for Young Writers for 2024 – consisting of Aljaž Koprivnikar (President), Leonora Flis, Jaruška Majovski and Suzana Tratnik, – have granted the award to Monika Herceg from Hrvaške.
Biography
Monika Herceg: foto © Sandra Šimunović
Monika Herceg, born in 1990 in Sisak, Croatia, is a poet, playwright, editor, feminist, activist and editor at Fraktura Publishing. She has won more than fifteen literary awards.
In 2017, she received the Goran Award for Young Poets for the best debut manuscript Početne koordinate (Initial Coordinates). The book was published in 2018 and was awarded the Kvirin Award for Young Poets, the Fran Galović Prize for the best literary work on the topic of homeland and/or identity, the Slavić Award for the best debut published in 2018, and the Macedonian Bridges of Struga International Poetry Award for the best debut.
Lovostaj. (Closed Season.) was the winner of the national literary award Prozak for the best unpublished manuscript by an author under 35 in 2018, and was published in 2019. In 2020, her third book of poetry, Vrijeme prije jezika (The Time Before The Tongue), was published, and awarded the Zvonko Milković Award for the best collection of intimate and/or native themes. She is a part of Versopolis, a European platform for poetry
She has won several regional prizes for short stories, including the Ranko Marinković Award, the Biber regional award for short stories on reconciliation, and the Lapis Histriae regional award.
She is the winner of the biennial Polish prize European Poet of Freedom 2024 for the book of poetry Lovostaj.
She received the award for the best drama of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb for Gdje se kupuju nježnosti (Where to Buy Tenderness). The play premiered in 2021. She has won several awards for drama scripts, including the most prestigious Marin Držić Award (twice), and the award of the Croatian National Theater in Mostar. Her plays are broadcast as radio dramas on the Croatian National Radio. Play Zakopana čuda (Buried Miracles) was also filmed as an experimental film. In 2022, a collection of her plays, Ubij se, tata(Kill Yourself, Dad), was published.
Her poems, individual books and plays have been translated into more than twenty languages. She received the Fierce Women Award in 2021 for her activist work. Currently she is working on her first novel, Razgovori s mrakom (Talking to the Darkness).
Laudation
Monika Herceg (1990, Croatia) is one of the most prominent and recognisable voices in contemporary Croatian literature. A poet, playwright, writer and activist, she enthralled readers and critics alike already with her debut poetry collection Početne koordinate (Initial Coordinates; SKUD Ivan Goran Kovačić, 2018), a book which distinguishes itself through its profound exploration of personal and collective memory, trauma, and the intricate dance between history and identity. Her first collection, which is structured around the cyclical nature of the seasons and which deftly combines magical realism with the rawness of reality, was followed by the collections Lovostaj (Closed Season; Jesenski and Turk, 2019) and Vrijeme prije jezika (The Time before the Tongue; Fraktura, 2020), each of which evinces lyrical intensity and emotional depth. Whereas the former collection delves into the themes of healing and overcoming trauma, and is stamped by the strong social engagement through which Herceg addresses such critical social issues as emancipation, femicide and violence against women, Vrijeme prije jezikaprobes the pre-linguistic essence of human existence and the uncovering of the fundamental nature of communication and understanding, with a focus on how language, memory and identity intersect. Herceg’s profound reflecting on human consciousness and the state of the world today, her dismantling of heteronormative dominance, her introducing of thematically and formatively fresh perspectives within poetics, along with her social stature, have won her several important Croatian and international awards; above all, she has won herself a wide readership that appreciates both the lyrical beauty and the raw depiction of social anomalies, the condition of marginalised communities portrayed in her poetics, where the written word resonates deeply on both a personal and collective level, connecting past and present human experiences. It should be emphasised that Monika Herceg’s literature is made richer by her role as a social activist and the significant impact on public discourse and social change she has had. Without compromise and with great commitment, she enriches the literary space of Central Europe and beyond, building an important bridge between the different layers of human experience and making her work universally accessible and highly relevant for our times. The Central European Initiative Prize is therefore a recognition of her exceptional talent and an encouragement for her to continue her commitment to literature and to the broader social shifts that inform her literary and social work.