Author Profile: Zoran Zivkovic

Zoran Zivkovic

To be completely honest, I originally chose this writer because he has the same surname as the composer that wrote the vibraphone solo I played a few years ago, and there was a small part of me that thought “maybe it’s the same guy?” I quickly realized that he was not in fact the same man, but as I read more about him, the more intrigued I became.

Zivkovic was born on October 5, 1948, in Belgrade, Serbia. He fell in love with literature at a very young age, and in 1979 he received his master’s degree from the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade. Three years later he received his doctorate from the same school, and then went on to become a full time professor at the school, were he still teaches Creative Writing to this day. Zivkovic has been awarded nine different literary awards since 1994, and has written over thirty works, becoming one of the most translated European authors to date. Most information on Zivkovic can be found on his personal wordpress page, zoranzivkovic.com.

The thing that drew me into to Zivkovic, was an interview between him and Ana Lucic. In this interview, he described his struggles with translating his works during the beginning of his carrier. Living in Serbia, Zivkovic had very limited means of getting his writing to the people, as only a very small population of the world speaks Serbian, and Serbian to English translators are very scarce and very expensive. Zivkovic preserved though, and has now become a very successful European author and translator.

 

Works:

  • Fiction
    • “The Fourth Circle” (Četvrti krug, 1993)
    • “Time Gifts” (Vremenski darovi, 1997)
    • “The Writer” (Pisac, 1998)
    • “The Book” (Knjiga, 1999)
    • “Impossible Encounters” (Nemogući susreti, 2000)
    • “Seven Touches of Music” (Sedam dodira muzike, 2001)
    • “The Library” (Biblioteka, 2002)
    • “Steps through the Mist” (Koraci kroz maglu, 2003)
    • “Hidden Camera” (Skrivena kamera, 2003)
    • “Compartments” (Vagon, 2004)
    • “Four Stories till the End” (Četiri priče do kraja, 2004)
    • “Twelve Collections and The Teashop” (Dvanaest zbirki i Čajdžinica, 2005)
    • “The Bridge” (Most, 2006)
    • “Miss Tamara, The Reader” (Čitateljka, 2006)
    • “Amarcord” (Amarkord, 2007)
    • “The Last Book” (Poslednja knjiga, 2007)
    • “Escher’s Loops” (Esherove petlje, 2008)
    • “The Ghostwriter” (Pisac u najam, 2009)
    • “The Five Wonders of the Danube” (Pet dunavskih čuda, 2011)
    • “The Grand Manuscript” (Nađi me, 2012)
  • Nonfiction
    • “Contemporaries of the Future” (Savremenici budućnosti, 1983)
    • “The Starry Screen” (Zvezdani ekran, 1984)
    • “First Contact” (Prvi kontakt, 1985)
    • “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction”, I-II (Enciklopedija naučne fantastike I-II, 1990)
    • “Essays on Science Fiction” (Ogledi o naučnoj fantastici, 1995)
    • “On Genre and Writing” (O žanru i pisanju, 2010)
    • “The Clay Writer: Shaping in Creative Writing” (Pisac od gline — oblikovati u kreativnom pisanju, 2013)
    • “Challenges of Fantastika” (2013)
  • Anthologies edited
    • “The Devil in Brisbane” (2005)
    • “Fantastical Journeys to Brisbane” (2007)

 

Questions:

I think if I were to conduct a short interview with Zivkovic, the first thing I would want to know is why he never gave up when the language gap between Serbian and the rest of the world was so significant. I believe it is safe to assume that he preserved because of his love for writing, and he wasn’t going to let any language barriers stand in his way. Zivkovic is one of those writers that doesn’t do it for the fame or the money, he does it because he wants everybody to have access to all literature imaginable. I would also ask him what got him into the subject of science fiction and speculative fiction. I believe his response would highlight the fact that he doesn’t really enjoy the limitations that genre prefixes entail, that he just writes what he feels and what he perceives, and it just so happens to fall under that category.

 

Reviews:

Title: “A Conversation with Zoran Zivkovic By Ana Lucic”

Format: Interview

Author: Ana Lucic

Rating: 9/10, very comprehensive with well thought out questions and responses

Source: http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/a-conversation-with-by-ana-lucic/

 

Title: “Zoran Živković: A Biographical Sketch”

Format: Biographical Article

Author: Michael A. Morrison

Rating: 7/10, provided quality information but it was a little impersonal and failed to provide a comprehensive list of works

Source: https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2011/november/zoran-zivkovic-biographical-sketch

 

Works Cited

Europa SF. “Writing In Languages Other Than English – Zoran Živković.” Europa SF The European Speculative Fiction Portal. WordPress, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

Lucic, Ana. “Interviews.” Dalkey Archive Press. Dalkey Archive Press, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

Morrison, Michael A. “Zoran Živković: A Biographical Sketch.” World Literature Today. World

Literature Today, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.

“Zoran Zivkovic.” Zoran Zivkovic. WordPress, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.