Velibor Čolić

Vilenica: Foreign Guests

Born in 1964 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1992 he has lived and worked in France. As a journalist (rock music & jazz) and as a writer. Since 2008 he has been writing originally in French, the language of his exile, and as a professional writer he has been published by the Parisian Gallimard. His books have been adapted for theater in France, Switzerland and Belgium. In addition to the original French language, his books have been translated into English, German, Spanish, Italian, English, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Turkish, Albanian, Czech, Portuguese, Slovenian, Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian.

In 2014 he received the Prix du Rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises from the French Academy. In 2024 his novel Guerre et Pluie received the Prix Victor Rossel, Goncourt belge, in Brussels where he has been living since 2021. For the same novel in France in 2024 he also received the prestigious Prix Joseph Kessel in France.

Photo: Francesca Mantovani