Stevo Grabovac Bosnia-Herzegovina

Stevo Grabovac (1978) is a Serbian-Bosnian writer and journalist, considered one of the most original and powerful voices in contemporary Balkan literature. He was born in Slavonski Brod, in present-day Croatia, because the nearby town of Bosanski Brod, where his family lived, did not have a maternity ward. He lives in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. An author of both prose and poetry, he has published short stories and poems in several collective volumes. In 2007 he made his debut with the poetry collection Stanica nepostojećih vozova [The Station of Non-Existent Trains]. In 2019 his first novel, Mulat albino komarac [A Mulatto, an Albino, a Mosquito], was published. The book received the “Šušnjar” Literary Prize and was a finalist for the NIN Award. It weaves together stories of the traumas endured and shared by an entire generation affected by the war and its aftermath, which frequently eroded hopes for the future. His second novel, After the Party (published in Italian by Marsilio in 2025), earned him the 70th NIN Award, the most prestigious literary prize in the former Yugoslav region. Beginning with the account of a war crime committed in the summer of 1992 near Bosanski Brod, the novel explores post-war Bosnian society and the transitional period, questioning the hypocrisy of NGOs, the corruption within the art world, and the role of the writer in contemporary society.

© Davide Selovin