PROMOTION OF NEW ISSUE OF “KRAJINA” TO BE HELD AT BANSKI DVOR

The promotion of the latest issue of Krajina, a journal dedicated to literature, culture, and science, will take place on Tuesday at 7 PM in the City Hall of Banski Dvor in Banja Luka. This edition is dedicated to the literary and translation work of poet Zoran Kostić.

Speakers at the event will include Zoran Arsović, Mirko Vuković, Luka Kecman, and Duško Pevulja, while dramatic artists Jelena Trepetova Kostić and Renata Agostini will also take part in the program.

The editor of Krajina, Goran Dakić, remarked that Zoran Kostić is one of those poets who have lived at least three lifetimes in one. “It is enough to mention the nights spent with Brana Petrović, Milan Nenadić, Jaša Grobarov, Aco Sekulić, and other bohemian companions in Belgrade taverns, the descent through the Morača canyon where he battled horned vipers with nothing but a single shirt, and his ulcer-filled agony in the Caucasus, to realize what kind of passionate adventurer we're dealing with,” said Dakić.

He went on to highlight that the history of Kostić’s manuscripts is also a history of censorship in the former Yugoslavia. Due to their national themes, the first five of Kostić’s books were published a full decade after being written. As Vladimir Jagličić noted, poems from Father’s Delta, First Things, and Sonnets were written between 1972 and 1976, but were only published in 1984 and 1986. The same happened with Who We Are and All Souls’ Tails, whose release was delayed for more than ten years due to both their subject matter and the poet’s perceived political “unsuitability.”

The special feature in this issue of Krajina offers a unique reconstruction of Kostić’s literary journey—a “survey work” of a six-decade-long biography. It does not include his translations and adaptations, as the number of pages would multiply exponentially. It is enough to mention that Kostić recently published the first volume of the Anthology of Russian Poetry from the 10th to the 21st Century, with the second volume currently in preparation. Once both are complete, they will total over a thousand pages of translations completed by the poet himself.