From one of Bosnia's most prominent poets and writers: spare and haunting stories and poems that were written under the horrific circumstances of the recent war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Semezdin Mehmedinovic remained a citizen of Sarajevo throughout the Serbian nationalists' siege and was active throughout the war in the city's resistance movement, as one of the editor's of the magazine Phantom of Liberty. Sarajevo Blues was originally published at the end of 1992 and was the first book in the Biblioteka "egzil-abc" series, published in Ljubljana, which provided a forum for Bosnian writers and translators under siege or living in exile. Semezdin Mehmedinovic says that "writing is, finally, quite a personal thing that doesn't make much sense unless you are practicing for the last word." For those Bosnians emerging from the siege or still in exile, these "last words" remain intimate possessions, one of the last bastions left against the commodification of tragedy.

Translated from the Bosnian with an introduction by Ammiel Alcalay

Following his depiction of Bosnia under siege in the much celebrated "Sarajevo Blues," Semezdin Mehmedinovic now explores the vast space of his new continent. Mostly written in response to a cross-country journey by train in post 9-11 America, Mehmedinovic's "Nine Alexandrias" provides a poetry of witness and testimony of a very different order. In this nightmarish and exhilarating odyssey, Mehmedinovic's political acuity is displayed everywhere but barely pronounced. In Washington, D.C., his new home, the graphic and tactile affirmation of life amidst horror depicted so masterfully in "Sarajevo Blues," turns into an eerie silence that permeates both the expanse of the land and the heart of the American empire.

Praise for Semezdin Mehmedinovic's Sarajevo Blues:

"A memorable literary achievement."--"Library Journal"

""Sarajevo Blues" is widely considered here to be the best piece of writing to emerge from the besieged capital since Bosnia's war erupted in April 1992."--"The Washington Post"

"In poems, micro-essays, and prose vignettes, Semezdin Mehmedinovic charts the collapse of a world with clear-eyed passion for the truth that one finds in the young Hemingway, the Hemingway of" In Our Time.""--Paul Auster

Semezdin Mehmedinovic was born in Tuzla, Bosnia in 1960 and is the author of five books. Mehmedinovic -arrived in the U.S. as a political refugee in 1996, and he is currently living in Alexandria, Virginia.