# Monika Herceg

Monika Herceg (1990.) is a poet, playwright, editor, feminist, and activist from Croatia. Born in Sisak and raised in the small village of Pecki near Petrinja, she was in exile as a child becuse of the war for more then ten years. She has received over twenty prestigious awards for her work, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. As a poet, playwright, editor, feminist, and activist, Herceg's writing addresses important themes such as poverty, domestic violence, immigration, and class and gender inequalities. She is recognized as a leading voice among young European poets, making a significant impact on contemporary literature.
She is the winner of the biennial Polish prize European Poet of Freedom 2024 for the book of poetry Lovostaj. (Closed Season) and Central European Award for Young Writers 2024.
"Monika Herceg's poetry is like a wound through which the world shines – painful, true, saturated with memory and anger, but also with hope for new stories. Her poems, arising from the experience of war, exile, and violence, transcend the boundaries of time and geography to stand up for those who never had a voice. This is poetry that is not afraid to speak of responsibility – for Europe, for women, for those excluded by systems and ideologies. Herceg writes about a history that no longer belongs to the victors, and about beauty that cannot fit into the confines we previously knew." Olga Tokarzcuk

## Biography

She grew up in small village Pecki, near Petrinja, where she studied Physics, first at University of Zagreb and then at the University of Rijeka. She currently lives, works as an editor and raises two kids in Zagreb.
“No one among our contemporary authors laughs like Monika Herceg; nor writes more sorrowful poems,” writes Miljenko Jergović, a Croatian novelist and essayist. The latter statement is especially true when it comes to Herceg’s debut poetry collection Initial Coordinates. The poems in the book portray the lives of women in rural Croatia throughout the twentieth century, whose stories of poverty and struggle are recounted in the voices of Herceg’s family members.
“There were no books in our house, and paper was only used to light the fire,” Monika recalls. However, during her education in the Croatian town of Petrinja, her teachers soon recognized her talent and provided her the support her family could not. Herceg began writing poetry while working several jobs, all taken on to finance her study of physics.

## Work and career

In 2017, she won Goran for her book Početne koordinate (Initial Coordinates), the most important award for young authors in Croatia. As a result, the book was published in 2018 and, after that, she won the Kvirin Award, Fran Galović Slavić award and the international award Mostovi Struge.
Initial Coordinates details Herceg’s return to the roots of her family and to those earliest, often traumatic, memories that have haunted her throughout her life.
Her second book, Lovostaj (The Closed Season) (Jesenski i Turk, 2019.), was also a success: the manuscript won the Na vrh jezika award for the best unpublished poetry volume in 2018 and was published in 2019. Her third book, Vrijeme prije jezika (Time Before the Tongue) (Fraktura, 2020), won the Zvonko Milković award.
At the international level, she won the second prize of the International Poetry Competition Castello di Duino that took place in Italy in 2016 and in 2018, she was granted the Bridges of Struga award during the Mostovi Struge festival in Macedonia for best debut of a young author. In 2021 she won the Fierce Women award for her activism.
Her works have been translated in more than twenty languages and they were published by some well-known magazines. She is part of Versopolis, an online platform dedicated to the promotion of young European authors. Her trilingual poetry books have been published in Lithuania and Austria. Another selection of her works have been published in French as Ciel sous tension, L’Ollave, 2019.
Her stories were also awarded with several regional and national awards, such as the Biber award and the Lapis Histriae and Ranko Marinković award.
She received the award for the best drama of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb for the play 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 twice. 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. She also wrote and directed few radio-plays for program of Croatian Radio and Television
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].
She is a member of the Croatia Writers Society and of the editorial board of their magazine. She is a member of Croatian PEN.

## Awards

* 2017 Goran award for young poets
* 2017 Castello di Duino
* 2017 Stevan Sremac award
* 2018 Kvirin award for young poets
* 2018 Fran Galović award for the best book
* 2018 Slavić award for the best debut
* 2018 Na vrh jezika award
* 2018 Mostovi Struge international award for the best debut
* 2019 Lapis Histrie award for the best short story
* 2019 Biber award for the best short story
* 2020 Zvonko Milković award for the best book
* 2020 Priče s Balkana award for the best short drama script
* 2020 National theatre in Zagreb award for the best drama script
* 2021 Marin Držić drama script award
* 2021 National theatre in Mostar award for best drama scripts
* 2021 Fierce Woman award
* 2022 Milo Bošković award
* 2023 Ranko Marinković award for best short story
* 2024 European Poet of Freedom award
* 2024 Central European Initiative Award for Young Writers
* 2024 National theatre in Mostar award for best drama scripts
* 2024 Biber award for the best short story

## Works

Početne koordinate (Initial Coordinates), Zagreb, 2018; SKUD Ivan Goran Kovačić and Beograd; Književna radionica Rašić, 2019.
Lovostaj (Closed season), Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk, 2019 and Beograd; Kontrast, 2020.
Vrijeme prije jezika (Time Before the Tongue), Zagreb: Fraktura, 2020 and Beograd; Kontrast, 2021.
Gdje se kupuju nježnosti (2020.) (Where to Buy Tenderness), drama script
Mrtve ne treba micati (2020.) (Dead should not be moved), short drama script
Ubij se, tata (2020), (Kill yourself, dear Dad), drama script
Zakopana čuda (2020.) (Buried miracles), drama script
Ubij se, tata (2020), (Kill yourself, dear Dad), Fraktura 2022. (book of collected plays)
TRANSLATIONS
Ciel sous tension, trans. Martina Kramer, Paris: L’Ollave, 2019.
Monika Herceg, Poetinis Druskininku ruduo, Vilnius: 2019.
Wo Lyrik zuhause ist, trans. Jelena Dabić Austrija, 2020.
Početni koordinati, trans. Đoko Zdraveski, PNV, Skopje, 2020.
Lovostoj., trans. Đoko Zdraveski, PNV, Skopje, 2021.
OÙ LES TENDRESSES S'ACHÈTENT-ELLES, Nicolas Raljević, Paris: Prozor Editions, 2021.
Initial Coordinates, USA, Sandorf Passage, 2022.
Початкові координати, Krok Press, Ternopil, Galicia, Ukraine
Αρχικές συντεταγμένες, trans. Marouso Athanasiou, Thraca, Greece, 2022
Jagdverbot, trans. Ivana Pajić, Eta Verlag, Berlin, 2023
Okres Ochronny, trans. Aleksandra Wojtaszek, Instytut Kultury Miejskiej, Gdanjsk, 2023
Kohë e ndaluar për gjueti (Lovostaj.), trans. Linda Mala, Albania 2024