Barbara Baždarić

 Author and Translator

Barbara, a native of Pula, Istria, graduated in English and Italian language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. She is currently working as an English and Italian language teacher at Jastrebarsko High School in Croatia. In 2014, she received an award for the project "GESTA", which was declared the best project in Croatia in the category of creative and innovative educational program on the Day of Creativity and Innovation. The program was organized under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Croatia and with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Culture, Zagreb City Assembly, Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Croatian Competitiveness Cluster and the Association of Cities, Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts, Ministry of Tourism and the city of Zagreb.

In 2018, Barbara published her poetic debut Grizem (I Bite) , followed by her second collection of poems Mislim da sam vidjela izvanzemaljca (I Think I Saw an Alien) in 2019. published with the financial support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media. Pandora's Box for Sale/Pandorina kutija na rasprodaji is her third poetry book, and her first bilingual publication, published by Perlina Press and with financial support by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia.

Barbara’s poems have been published on portals and on several occasions in the Republika literary magazine. She was among about thirty selected authors of the collection In the Network of Verses in 2019. Some of her poems were translated into Albanian and published in the literary magazine Doruntina. Barbara is one of the participants in the "Morning of Poetry" forum. She is the editor and host of the show on culture "The comma is my weak point" on Radio Jaska.

Photo by Boris Ščitar

Marina Šur Puhlovski

Author

Marina Šur Puhlovski was born in Zagreb on September 20, 1948. She obtained her M.A. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy at the University of Zagreb.

           During her youth, she was engaged in journalism, and, for a while, in literary criticism, after which she decided to commit herself to literary writing.

           Marina began writing poetry in early childhood, and later, during her studies, she focused on prose. The first story, "Under the Table", was published in 1974 in the Journal of the Croatian Writers' Republika. Since then, she has published stories in numerous literary magazines and newspapers. Her first book, a novel Trojanska kobila (The Trojan Mare) was published in 1991 - just before the outbreak of the war in former Yugoslavia. By 1991, however, she had nine unpublished books, adamantly refusing to fit into the 'postmodernist' generation, then active, close-knit and praised. She openly distanced herself from that circle and pursued her own literary 'voice,' not recognized at the time. "You're not going to publish anything for a long time now," the reviewer of "Trojan Mare" said to her, and so it was like that, indeed. War broke out, everything else was on stand-by.

           During the war, however, Marina still published stories in magazines, and Ništarija (A Good-for-Nothing Man), a novel she had written in her youth, was published in two parts in 'Forum' (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts). It was only in 1996, when she was 48, that her second collection of short stories - written when she was 30 - A Rabbit in the Attic was published. In the following twenty years, she managed to publish all the books 'from her drawer,' publishing one, and even two a year, together with those she was writing alongside - a total of twenty titles. Her novels were always longlisted or shortlisted for prominent Croatian literary awards. Her novel Divljakuša (Wild Woman, translated by Christina Pribichevich-Zoric and published by Istros Books in 2019) won the publishing house VBZ's prize for the best unpublished novel of the year 2018 and soon became a literary bestseller.

           Marina's interests are diverse, and apart from six novels and six story collections, she has written and published a collection of songs in prose, two travel books about the Adriatic, a collection of essays on the meaning of literature and the difference between art and sophisticated kitsch, a collection of mini-essays, and several books of mixed genres (travel, journal, aphorisms).

Marina Katinić Pleić

Author

Marina Katinić Pleić was born on June 23, 1984, in Zagreb, where she completed her primary and secondary education at the Classical Gymnasium. In 2008, she graduated with a degree in Philosophy and Croatian Language and Literature from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb. In 2020, she earned her PhD in Philosophy from the same institution, focusing on integrative bioethics, the philosophy of education, and philosophy with children, exploring potential synergies among these areas. Her doctoral research led to the publication of her book, Integrative Thinking: A Response to the Triple Crisis of Postmodernity, released in 2023 by the Zagreb-based publishing house Pergamena.

Marina has participated as a speaker at various international events, including the Lošinj Bioethics Days, Dani Frane Petrića, and the international summer school Bioethics in Context, organized by Fernuniversität in Hagen and partner institutions, including the Department of Philosophy at the University of Zagreb (Crete, 2012; Tutzing 2016; Tutzing 2018). She has also presented at the annual international symposium of the Institute for Philosophy with Children in Graz. Additionally, she has co-authored textbooks on Ethics for the first year of high school and vocational schools, published by Školska knjiga.

Marina Katinić Pleić has published several papers in leading domestic scientific journals and one international journal focused on bioethical and educational-philosophical topics. She has addressed bioethical issues at various roundtables, public forums, and in the media.

In addition to her academic work, Marina is an accomplished poet. She has published five poetry collections: Kriptopis bijelog u procijepu zemlje (Korčula, 2013), Ptica na ušću smoga (Angelko Novaković Award, Zagreb, 2016), Pogled kroz ključanicu (Zagreb, 2019), Opsimenjavanje kiše (2022), and Tisuću i jedno more/One Thousand and One Sea (Boston, 2023, shortlisted at Šimićev dani2023). Her poetry is regularly featured in literary journals. She has also written essays on literature, literary critiques, forewords, and reviews, and translated selections of poetry by Patrizia Cavalli (Poezija 2022, 3/4).

Marina edited the poetry collections Vrijeme prije sestre by Ivana Čagalj (2021) and Pjesme uz put by Zoran Stamenić (Jutro poezije, Zagreb, 2022) and has presented the works of Barbara Baždarić (Grizem, Mislim da sam vidjela izvanzemaljca, Pandorina kutija na rasprodaji) and Vera Vujović (Teška voda).

Her literary work has been showcased at events such as Šumski pjesnici (2014 and 2015), Šušur-festival od riči (Korčula 2012), Faropis (Hvar 2017), Jutro poezije (2019), Pjesma za izbjeglice (2018), and Razgovor s pjesnikinjom (2019), as well as the DHK Forum (2022). In July 2023, she participated in the Stih Festival in the region, organized by HDP. Marina is currently employed as a teacher of Croatian Language, Ethics, and Philosophy at the School of Contemporary Dance Ana Maletić in Zagreb and serves as the assistant editor for Republika, a literary, art, and culture journal published by the Croatian Writers' Association.