Overview

"A collection of poems that carry the writer and the reader with their music and wisdom into life's complications, especially when you grow up during a devastating war that pits neighbors against each other. Dziho-Sator is a young Bosnian woman writing in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. She writes powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic poems about being a child of war, becoming a woman, and interacting with family and friends. She is a professor of English literature and language with a gift for humor and immense skill at using the English language to break open new ways of seeing. As Serbian poet Ivana Maksic writes about this book, """"Aida Dziho Sator's poetry rewards us with a rare simplicity and wisdom. It deals with our complex personal histories and collective memories, and the questions of guarding them, no matter how selective they are. Lines are hesitant, as if interrupted; they express a bewilderment of a child trying to distinguish a play from a lethal war strategy, tornado from detonation, menstruation from being wounded, hugging from clogging. The exploration of language is focused on its paradoxes and ambiguities - the war breaks when it starts, elevator is downing you, not lifting you - with a strong emphasis on imagery - a pupil is a deep black hole; bodies and heads - white and pink spots in a frozen painting. Her poetic voice impersonates and inhabits individual bodies and places of suffering, thus standing against the processes of freezing and abstracting that threaten our very humanity. Powerful in its lucidity, it questions rather than answers the most challenging ideas of wholeness, identity, self-expression and the possibility of translation. For we speak by breaking the silence, but also speak by what remains silent."""

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9781958728208

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Reviews

"""Aida Dziho Sator's poetry rewards us with a rare simplicity and wisdom. It deals with our complex personal histories and collective memories, and the questions of guarding them, no matter how selective they are. Lines are hesitant, as if interrupted; they express a bewilderment of a child trying to distinguish a play from a lethal war strategy, tornado from detonation, menstruation from being wounded, hugging from clogging. The exploration of language is focused on its paradoxes and ambiguities - the war breaks when it starts, elevator is downing you, not lifting you - with a strong emphasis on imagery - a pupil is a deep black hole; bodies and heads - white and pink spots in a frozen painting. Her poetic voice impersonates and inhabits individual bodies and places of suffering, thus standing against the processes of freezing and abstracting that threaten our very humanity. Powerful in its lucidity, it questions rather than answers the most challenging ideas of wholeness, identity, self-expression and the possibility of translation. For we speak by breaking the silence, but also speak by what remains silent. Is something broken or Do we break it? Do poems eat words or Do words eat poems?"" Ivana Maksic, a Serbian poet ""Without casting any judgment or looking for the culprit, Aida DzihoSator delivers verses with a strong poetic voice that depicts the social anomalies of the war-time and post-war Bosnian society. Death is present, but there is no fear of it. The author builds a poetic discourse on the little, everyday things that we are usually not aware of, nor how important they are in our lives. A great, strong and fresh poetic voice. Adnan Zetica, award-winning author of six poetry collections among them ""A Draft for a Fairytale."" ""The poetry reader who knows anything about the four yearlong Balkans War will learn more about it from this beautiful poetry book than from history books where a single person is just a simple number. The reader of this touching diary about the drama of war and of peace, will discover in the poetry a new drama about the invisible scars that remain in those of us who survived. Just read it!"" Goran Simic, author of the poetry collections ""Sprinting from the Graveyard"" (Oxford University Press, UK) and ""Immigrant Blues"" (Brick Books, Canada)"

Author Information

Aida Dziho-Sator, PhD, is professor of English Literature at the Dzemal Bijedic University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has one book of poems published, I'm Waiting for the Osman's Story, (Cekam Osmanovu pricu). Her poems have been published in Aida Dziho-Sator, PhD, is professor of English Literature at the Dzemal Bijedic University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has one book of poems published, I'm Waiting for the Osman's Story, (Cekam Osmanovu pricu). Her poems have been published in Castello di Duino Poetry Collection in Italy, Balkan Literary Herald, Pitchwise, The Death Project, and the literary magazine Life, one of the oldest and most acclaimed literary magazines of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is the recipient of a fellowship to the U.S. Institute of Scholars and several teaching grants in Europe. She lives in Mostar, BiH with her husband and two children.She is the recipient of a fellowship to the U.S. Institute of Scholars and several teaching grants in Europe. She lives in Mostar, BiH with her husband and two children.

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