Biljana D. Obradović

Biljana D. Obradović, a Serbian-American poet, translator and critic has lived in Yugoslavia, Greece, and India besides the U.S. She is Professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana, in New Orleans. She started learning English at the age of nine when she was at Pinewood Schools of Thessaloniki, Greece. Besides Serbian and English, she speaks French and Greek. She moved to India for high school in 1976 and attended the prestigious Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay. She received her B.A. in English Language and Literature from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade (1987). After college she went to the US in 1988 for graduate study. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia (1991) and then her Ph.D. in English with a creative dissertation from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (1995). She taught at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa for a year and then moved to New Orleans in 1996 and has been at XU since 1997. She saw her country split up during the civil war, then lost both of her parents in 1999, and lost the frist floor of her house and everything in it during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2006 she became an American citizen. She is married to poet, John Gery, and they have a thirteen-year old son, Petar.

She writes in English and has three previous collections of poems, Frozen Embraces (Rasko Petrović Award, 1997), Le Riche Monde (1999), and Little Disruptions (2012)—all published with facing page translations in Serbia, but distributed through Cross-Cultural Communications, Merrick, New York. Her poems also appear in Three Poets in New Orleans (2000), and in numerous anthologies and magazines. In addition to her own poetry, other works include her Serbian translations of collections by: John Gery, American Ghosts: Selected Poems (1999), Stanley Kunitz, The Long Boat (2007), Ezra Pound’s granddaughter, Patrizia de Rachewiltz, Dear Friends (2012), Bruce Weigl, What Saves Us (2013), and Nigerian poet, Niyi Osundare, The Tongue Is a Pink Fire (2015). She edited and translated in both directions (English-Serbian), Fives: Fifty Poems by Serbian and American Poets, A Bilingual Anthology (2002), and translated into English a collection of Bratislav Milanović’s poems, Doors in a Meadow (2011). She is co-editor, with Dubravka Djurić of, Cat Painters: An Anthology of Contemporary Serbian Poetry from the Sixties to the Present (New Orleans: Dialogos Press, 2016). She has read her poetry in China, England, Ireland, Italy, Serbia and all over the US. She reviews books for World Literature Today and others. Her poems have been translated into Bengali, Serbian, Italian, Arabic and Korean. She is the recipient of the NCF Award for Excellence in Research for 2015 at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Links

Reviews of Biljana’s work:

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2011/november/doors-meadow-bratislav-r-milanovic#.VT1sifA2eew

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-86170692.html

http://business.highbeam.com/5271/article-1G1-271596841/bratislav-r-milanovic-doors-meadow

http://www.ou.edu/wlt/11_2011/reviews-milanovic.html

Biljana’s reviews of others’ work:

in World Literature Today

Dacey, Philip, Church of the Adagio. New York City: Rain Mountain Press, 2014.
http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2015/september/church-adagio-philip-dacey

Skeen, Tim. Risk. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2014.
http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2015/may/risk-tim-skeen

Shoemaker, Karen. The Meaning of Names. Pasadena: Red Hen Press, 2014. (March 2015)

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2015/march/meaning-names-karen-gettert-shoemaker#.VT1rB_A2eew

Bauer, Grace. Nowhere All at Once. Nacogdoches: Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2014. (Jan 2015)

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2015/january/nowhere-all-once-grace-bauer#.VKsEYMnw92

Mihailović,. Vasa Selected Poems. [Izabrane Pesme] Belgrade: Tanesi, 2013.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/november/izabrane-pesme-vasa-mihailovic#.VHovjGd32So

Karanović, Zvonko Cages, 2013 (book of poems) May 2014.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/may-august/kavezi-zvonko-karanovic#.VASftqN32So

Vukićević, Danica [Visoki Fabrički Dimnjaci] Factory Smoke Stacks. Kraljevo: Narodna Biblioteka Stefan Prvovenčani, 2012.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/march/visoki-fabricki-dimnjaci-danica-vukicevic#.VHovrmd32So

Milošević, Nenad. Vode i Vetrovi [Waters and Winds]. Novi Sad: Vujica RešinTucić, 2012.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2014/january/vode-i-vetrovi-nenad-milosevic#.VHov3Gd32So

Halilović. Enes Pesme iz Bolesti i Zdravlja [Poems of Sickness and Health]. Belgrade: Konras, 2011.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2013/january/pesme-iz-bolesti-i-zdravlja-enes-halilovic#.VMRk4izw92A

Lengold. Jelena. Bunar Tečkih Reči. Belgrade: Arhipealg, 2011.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.com/2012/november/bunar-teskih-reci-jelena-lengold

Poetry

Obradović, Biljana D. Little Disruptions/ Mali Poremećaji (A bilingual English/Serbian edition). Transl. from English by Tatjana Stefanović et al. Niš: Niš Cultural Center Press, 2012.

Obradović, Biljana D. Frozen Embraces/ Zamrznuti Zagrljaji (A bilingual, English/Serbian ed.). Belgrade and Merrick, NY: Center of Emigrants from Serbia/ Cross-Cultural Communications, 2000 (second improved edition).

Obradović, Biljana D. Le Riche Monde (A bilingual, English/Serbian, collection of poems). Belgrade/ Merrick, NY: Raška Škola/ Cross-Cultural Communications, 1999.

Obradović, Biljana D. Three Poets in New Orleans: Lee Meitzen Grue, Biljana D. Obradović, Patricia A. Ward. Ed. Thomas Bonner. New Orleans: Xavier Review Press, 2000 (thirteen poems).