The Harriman Institute presents "A Conversation with Dubravka Ugresic."

Dubravka Ugresic was best known in the former Yugoslavia for her fiction, novels and short stories: Poza za prozu, 1978; Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota, 1981; Zivot je bajka, 1983; Forsiranje romana reke, 1988. Her novel Forsiranje romana reke was given the coveted NIN-award for the best novel of the year: Ugresic was the first woman to receive this honor. Croatian film director Rajko Grlic made a film U raljama zivota (1984) based on Ugresic's short novel Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota. Ugresic co-authored the screenplay, as she did with screenplays for two other movies and a TV drama.

In 1991, when the war broke out in the former Yugoslavia, Ugresic took a firm anti-nationalistic stand and consequently an anti-war stand. She started to write critically about nationalism (both Croatian and Serbian), the stupidity and criminality of war, and soon became a target of the nationalistically charged media, officials, politicians, fellow writers and anonymous citizens. She was proclaimed a "traitor", a "public enemy" and a "witch", ostracized and exposed to harsh and persistent media harassment. She left Croatia in 1993.

Dubravka Ugresic has continued writing since she began living abroad. She has published both novels (Muzej bezuvjetne predaje, Ministarstvo boli) and books of essays (Americki fikcionar, Kultura lazi, Zabranjeno citanje, Nikog nema doma). Ugresic's essays have appeared in American ("Context", "The Hedgehog Review") and European newspapers and magazines (such as "Vrij Nederland", "NRC Handelsblad", "Die Zeit", "Neue Zurcher Zeitung", "Die Welt Woche", and many others). She teaches occasionally at American and European universities. Her books have been translated into more then twenty languages. Dubravka Ugresic has received several major European literary awards. She is based in Amsterdam today, working as a freelance writer.