Mid November in the Boston area is filled with many cultural events, and this Friday it included a conversation with the Croatian author Monika Herceg, as she introduced her book Closed Season. This book tour was organized by the publisher Sandorf Passage which has published a number of Croatian authors.
Book introduction and signing took place at the Brookline Booksmith, one of New England’s premier independent bookstores, which hosts an award-winning events series including the groundbreaking Transnational Literature Series. The event was opened by Pierce Alquist, the director of the Series focusing on stories of migration, the intersection of politics and literature, and works in translation.
Monika was in conversation with acclaimed translator and author Ellen Elias-Bursać. The audience included a number of poetry scholars as well as Croatians who wanted to pay tribute to the awarded poet.
Photo by New England Friends of Croatia: Alquist introduces Herceg and Elias-Bursac
A few segments were read first in Croatian by the author and then in a translated version by Ellen Elias-Bursać. Ellen gave credit to the translator Marina Veverec from the University of Zadar, Croatia, who sent a personal note of encouragement to all poetry writers.
The book introduction was followed by Q&As, booksigning and refreshments and Croatian wine provided by New England Friends of Croatia.
The first question Elias-Bursać asked was about the connection between physics and poetry. Herceg had an engaging explanation: “For me it is the same. There is language in both. When I read an equation, I decode the letters and then I can read stories behind it. It is the best fiction. Science and poetry are so interconnected that I think scientists need to read poetry to get better at language, in order to be better scientists.”
Photo by New England Friends of Croatia: Herceg and Elias-Bursac in an energetic conversation
Much of conversation centered around the role of women in science and lack of their recognition which was the inspiration for this book.
Photo by New England Friends of Croatia: Serious topics, serious conversations
Herceg will also hold similar events in Portland on Monday, November 17 and in Manhattan New York on Tuesday, November 18.
Graphics courtesy of the publisher Sandorf Passage
About the Poet and the Boston Moderator
Monika Herceg is a poet, playwright, essayist, feminist, activist, and editor at Fraktura Publishing. She is the author of three poetry books: Initial Coordinates, Closed Season, and The Time Before the Tongue. She has received many prestigious national and international awards, including Goran za mlade pjesnike, Kvirin, Fran Galovic, Slavic, Mostovi Struge, Na vrh jezika, Biber, Zvonko Milkovic, Lapis Histriae, and the European Poet of Freedom Award in 2024. A physicist by profession, she spent her childhood in the village of Pecki near Petrinja. A mother of two, she lives and works in Zagreb.
Moderator Ellen Elias-Bursać has translated Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian writing and received the National Translation Award for Albahari’s novel Götz and Meyer. She taught Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian in the Harvard Slavic Department and was also the president of the American Literary Translators Association.
About the Author: Mirena Bagur, MBA, is the president of the New England Friends of Croatia, board member at The National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation and co-founder of Croatian Premium Wine Imports, Inc.
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