Seven authors, seven different stories: This year's women's prose block has arrived

A vibrant collection of contemporary Croatian female prose has been released, featuring seven new titles under the "Free Electronic Books" project. This initiative highlights a diverse generational and poetic spectrum of current Croatian women's writing, spanning micro-prose, fragmented love stories, and intimate narratives.

The newly published works include Mirjana Dugandžija's "Rujanska kupačica," Mima Juračak's "Sitan život," Lucija Kozina's "Važno je imati hobi," Tena Lončarević's "Nijemi monolozi," Sara Tvrdić's "U potrazi za jugom," Nora Verde's "Moja dota," and Jasna Žmak's "Moja ti." These authors present distinct approaches, literary techniques, and generational experiences, rather than a singular "female" poetics.

Central themes explored across the collection include love, the body, childhood, family relationships, trauma, loss, motherhood, work, violence, and the tension between provincial and urban life. A significant focus is placed on transforming personal experiences that lack public discourse into literature. The project emphasizes how intimate experiences can be rendered socially relevant and universally literary through diverse forms, from single-sentence stories to expansive cycles.

Notable among the works is Dugandžija's "Rujanska kupačica," which revisits the 1990s and 2000s with neorealistic prose set in provincial and urban environments marked by nepotism and despair, yet touched by hidden hope. Juračak's award-winning "Sitan život" blends Kafkaesque absurdity with realistic provincial life and corporate settings, focusing on the quiet love stories of working women. Kozina's "Važno je imati hobi" delves into childhood, love, and isolation, while Lončarević's "Nijemi monolozi" crafts a space of "painfully beautiful unease" where speech fails.

Sara Tvrdić's "U potrazi za jugom" follows four friends, Nora Verde's "Moja dota" emerges from the intimate atmosphere of an Adriatic island, and Jasna Žmak's "Moja ti" offers one of the most original queer love manuscripts in contemporary Croatian prose. This collection collectively affirms the vitality of Croatian prose and its capacity to address profound human experiences.

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Upravo u toj raznolikosti – od jedne rečenice koja nosi cijelu priču do razgranatih ciklusa i romana – ženski prozni blok potvrđuje vitalnost suvremene hrvatske proze i njezinu sposobnost da intimno iskustvo istovremeno učini društveno relevantnim i književno univerzalnim.