Intimus
This book was published with the support of the Slovenian Book Agency.
In the collection Intimus, Montenegrin author Tijana Rakočević transcends temporal and geographical boundaries, revealing violence seeping into every corner her gaze touches. A clear division emerges between stories that explore the relationship between the individual and the collective—whether it’s the genocide in Rwanda, Montenegrin national myths, or events in Tanzania—and others that bring the intimate experiences of individual women to the forefront. The author skillfully draws from and reworks motifs from world literature, while her critical gaze moves horizontally—across animals, plants, and people—highlighting the devastating consequences of violence and patriarchal power structures in both urban and rural settings. She also pays close attention to the linguistic layer of the narrative, skillfully employing numerous stylistic shifts.
Tijana Rakočević (Podgorica, 1994) is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Philology in Nikšić. She has published the poetry collection Sve blistavi kvanti (All Those Shining Quanta) and the short story collection Intimus. She is the deputy editor-in-chief at the publishing house Fokalizator.
She has received the Central European Initiative Award for Young Authors, the most prestigious biennial award for dramatic writing in Montenegro from the Montenegrin National Theatre, the second prize in the A Sea of Words short story competition for the Euro-Mediterranean region (organized by the European Institute of the Mediterranean in Barcelona), and the award for the best young artist in Montenegro (awarded by the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts).
She is also the recipient of the award for the best short story in Montenegro (2019), first prize in the Goethe-Institut’s poetry competition in Zagreb, and the author of the best queer short story from the region. A film adaptation of her short story My Fingers Were Itching is currently in development, supported by the Film Centre of Montenegro. She works for the Government of Montenegro.