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Poet

Branko Čegec

Branko Čegec

Branko Čegec

(Croatia, 1957)
Biography
The writer, editor, critic, anthologist, essayist and translator Branko Čegec (1957) made his poetic debut with experimental poems, and subsequently devoted himself to free verse. A highly influential editor, first of one of the most significant literary magazines in the former Yugoslavia, Quorum (1985-1989), and then in his own publishing firm, Meander, which he founded in 1992; in 1999 he was appointed the chairman of the managing board of Goranovo Proljeće, the most important poetry festival in Croatia.
His melancholic and neurotic lyrical subject matter can also be recognised in the poetry of many younger Croatian poets, male and female, on whom he has had a major influence. He is equally at home using elements taken from popular music and media culture, as well as with those mainly encountered through reading and in translating.
 
Some of his poetry reflects a “bookish” inspiration, in the sense that that many of his poems, which seem at first sight to have been written spontaneously, and which deal with fleeting, shifting, ephemeral layers of everyday personal experiences, should properly be regarded as bearing complex relationships with other, mostly foreign, poetic and artistic works and creations. His is also a poetry of engagement, in the sense that it takes a reactive stance to events in the immediate social environment. And here his poems may be read as texts written by an observer who is a chance participant (even an unwilling one) in the events which are taking place in front of the reader, one who in speaking of the other wishes to speak of himself as a lyric subject.
© Miloš Đurđević (Translated by Kim Burton)
Bibliography
Poetry


Eros-Europa-Arafat, SKUD I. G. Kovačić, Zagreb, 1980
Zapadno-istočni spol, A. Cesarec, Zagreb, 1983
Melankolični ljetopis, ICR, Rijeka, 1988
Ekrani praznine, Naklada MD, Zagreb, 1992; second edition, 2003
Nitko ne govori hrvatski, (bilingual Croatian-French edition, with M. Mićanović and I. Prtenjača); selected and translated by V. Mikšić and B. Radić, Meandar, Zagreb, 2002
Tamno mjesto, Meandar, Zagreb, 2005 

Strast razlike, tamni zvuk praznine - hrvatsko pjesništvo osamdesetih i devedesetih; (an anthology with M. Mićanović), Naklada MD, Zagreb, 1995

Non fiction 

Presvlačenje avangarde, essays and critiques, CDD SSOH, Zagreb, 1983 
Fantom slobode, essays, Naklada MD, Zagreb, 1994

Awards

Goran Prize for Young Poets (1980)
7 Sekretara SKOJ-a Award (1983)
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère