NINA ŽIVANČEVIĆ

Nina Živančević was born in Belgrade in 1957.

In the early 1980s, she collaborated with Allen Ginsberg. She received the Branko Award for her first work, Pesme (1982). She worked as a literary editor for East Village Eye and Theater X, as a freelance journalist for Politika, El País, L’Unita, Woman, and Nexus, and as a contributor to The New Yorker and New York Arts Magazine. In addition to performing with The Living Theater and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, she co-founded the “Odijana” theatre in 1988. In 2001, she earned a PhD in Comparative Literature and Slavic Studies from the University of Nancy, with a dissertation on the reception of the works of Miloš Crnjanski.

In 2002, she received a special grant from PEN America, and for her project Izvor svetlosti (2021), she was awarded a grant by the Centre National du Livre. She has taught literature and the theory of avant-garde theatre at numerous universities, including Naropa University, New York University, Harriman, and St. John’s University in the United States.

She has written poetry collections in Serbian, French, and English. In addition to Pesme, her works published in Serbian include Mostovi koji rastu (1984), Gledajući knjige nezavisnih izdavača (1985), Duh renesanse (1989), Pesnički divan (1995), Minotaur i lavirint (1996), Slovo Pi (2004), Krajem veka (2006), Isceljenje (2011), Umetnost hvatanja bumeranga: izabrane i nove pesme (2013), and Jedini izvor svetlosti (2023).

She has published the following prose works: Vizantijske priče (1995), Prodavci snova (2000), Kao što već rekoh (2002), Orfejev povratak (2003), Krajem veka (2006), and Ono što se pamti (2017), as well as the book of interviews Iznenadni blesak (2009) and the study Crnjanski i njegov čitalac: (recepcija Crnjanskog dela u svetu) (2012). Her essays have been collected in Veštačka inteligencija i prirodna glupost (2021), Nomadkinje – četrnaest umetnica sa eksjugoslovenskih prostora (2021), and Ono što se vidi – filmske kritike i eseji 2009-2019 (2022). Her works have been translated into several languages. She also edited and translated the anthology of American poetry Novi glasovi and translated Charles Bukowski’s Tales of Ordinary Madness, Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace, and other works.

She has received numerous literary awards. She lives in Paris and teaches languages, avant-garde theatre, and performance at the Sorbonne and Paris 8 University. She is a member of the Serbian Literary Society.