Women* Write the Balkans

Mileva's Singer Machine — Women* Write the Balkans To those who were picking and packing, Singerica was a nuisance to steal. To me, as I sew up a small piece of my family’s past three decades later, it’s priceless.

In the penultimate part of our Bodies of the Balkans special, Dragica Mikavica explores the wardrobes of three generations of women and the (dis)comfort of cloth(e)s.
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/milev...

Growing Pains — Women* Write the Balkans In my more-or-less adulthood, I sometimes have coffee with my mum, often by the sea. We talk quite a bit now. To my surprise, I am not sure that words lead to a better understanding.

Check out Growing Pains, a new essay in our Bodies of the Balkans winter special. Iva Jelušić explores parental expectations that eschewed words, living instead in bodies, gestures, and things.
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/growi...

So I wrote something about ethnicity and gender, and the feeling of being "Other" in both. Thanks so much to @womenwritebalkans.bsky.social for publishing it, hope people find it an interesting read!

On Classification — Women* Write the Balkans When rights in a society are determined by what group one is considered part of, aggressive attempts to police the boundaries of who “really counts” are almost inevitable. It is not enough to just be ...

The third essay of our winter special Bodies of the Balkans is now on the website! @alexsaysstuff.bsky.social writes about bodies—national and personal—and costs of classification.
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/on-cl...

Across the River — Women* Write the Balkans A small, cold weight lodged in the body. I have held it there, contained, neither mastered nor erased. It rises only rarely, most often when I cross a state border.

In the second part of our winter special, Bodies of The Balkans, Magdalena Crăciun guides us through the river crossing between socialist Romania and Bulgaria, exploring the shadow economy and the delicious pleasures on the other side with a touch of life-changing suspense.
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Epistle on a Mnemonic — Women* Write the Balkans Numerous tests are being conducted on its centenarians without providing persuasive answers on why Ikaria is on the list of what the world called Blue Zones: is it the diet, the air, the sea, genetic...

Our winter special, "Bodies of the Balkans," begins with a piece by Alja Gudžević that takes us to Ikaria, where stories of hunger and long life unfold.

An incredible piece to be read many times. Ena, thank you for writing it.

This left me gasping for air at the end. Magnificent and crushing. Thanks for sharing, @enaselimo.bsky.social

Remarkable, moving piece by @enaselimo.bsky.social!

This is an astonishing piece of writing.

My God, what a magnificent, thoughtful, heart-wrenching piece.

"According to Bosnian documents, he is a traitor. According to Turkish documents, he is a spy. According to American documents, he is an alien. According to them all, he is to be put in no position to help others or himself." Ena Selimović: Airborne Illustration: gray and black embroidery of B-2 bomber patent drawings on a blue background

We're immensely proud to share with you "Airborne," a new story by @enaselimo.bsky.social:
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/airbo...

Call for Pitches: Bodies of the Balkans

We’re looking for nonfiction—of any length or form—that dives into the many meanings and manifestations of embodiment in and of the Balkans.

Send us your pitches (50–100 words) by October 1 and join us for our first-ever Virtual Open House on September 24:

www.womenwritethebalkans.com/specials

Women* Write the Balkans Community Some stories stay with you forever. For our author Dijana Mujkanović, “Pilgrimage to Ilije Bursaća 51” is one she carries everywhere. Photo of a forearm tattoo featuring a colorful bird, a window, and a plant

www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/pilgr...

“Yugoslavia, California, Ethiopia, and water activism populate Mela Žuljević’s deeply researched personal narrative, “Hercegovina Kalifornija: Landscape and Legacies in the Neretva Valley.” The essay transported me to a place I’d often been but will never again be in the same way, having read this essay. It succinctly renders the utter folly of geopolitical borders, especially when they cut through water. Žuljević describes a grim reality—“Political divisions of the country produced such ethnic landscapes that now benefit only the alliances of ethnonationalist ruling classes and investors who, under the guise of ‘green transition,’ capture water for private profit”—that nonetheless can, and has, and should be resisted, in solidarity with the Neretva.” Ena Selimović, author of "Counting Change"

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Women* Write the Balkans Community "From the initial essay, Ena Selimović's extraordinary story “Counting Change,” Women* Write the Balkans made a place magnificently new and curious while speaking closely to what I have experienced. When I got the chance to contribute, the editors read with so much care and imagination - each version brought rounds of pleasure, challenges and trust, fully appropriate for the story of Hercegovina Kalifornija." Mela Žuljević, author of "Hercegovina Kalifornija"

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"Now, nearly two decades later, the change is undeniable. The village is shrinking, its pulse weaker than ever before. The nature that we once tamed and bent to our will is reclaiming its space. Trees grow in places once unheard of, wild grasses swallow up abandoned fields, and lively chatter once carried across the meadows is now replaced by silence. I feel an overwhelming certainty that nothing as groundbreaking as the arrival of the Bulgarians will ever happen again." Olivera Lazarević: When the Fields Spoke Bulgarian

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www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/when-...

“Year after year, every spring, an expected transformation would take place in Trnavci, my village in central Serbia. With the change of the season, the first buds of new life would emerge from the soil, and alongside them arrived the Bulgarian seasonal workers who nurtured the land and harvested the crops. In the autumn, they would leave, but only to come back the next year. Then, one year, they simply didn’t come. And they never returned.” Olivera Lazarević: When the Fields Spoke Bulgarian

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www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/when-...

"For the first nineteen years of my life, before I moved to Belgrade for my studies, I watched my parents work our family’s land. Their labor was not merely a means of income but an obligation. My father, a geography teacher, and my mother, a retired teller, did not rely on agriculture to survive. They cultivated the land out of duty. Selling it would be a sign of failure, renting it out would be an act of laziness, neglecting it a betrayal." Olivera Lazarević: When the Fields Spoke Bulgarian

We conclude our seasonal shorts series Balkan Blooms in the fields of central Serbia, where Olivera Lazarević remembers the legacy of Bulgarian seasonal labor.
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/when-...

Mothers Who Eat the Good Strawberries — Women* Write the Balkans I think of pleasure as a serious business, an act of survival, even. One that must be dug into to help one bear the pains of motherhood.

What an observant essay, on home food, love, and gifting
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/mothe...

"My aunt hates crowds, but my favorite time for asparagus foraging is Easter. Everyone comes out between Easter lunch and dinner to avoid the post-food coma nap. Rural northeast Istria, usually empty, now crawls with people. We say hello, and I feel like part of the community." Rebecca Duras: A Few Things I Know About Asparagus (and A Few More That I Don't)

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"Picking asparagus is all about timing. Leave it too late and the snakes are out. Leave it to the weekend, and the groves are picked over, my aunt grumbling about out-of-towners, city slickers, and farmer’s market resellers who take it all before the working people get their shot. Most foraging in Istria winds up in a land dispute." Rebecca Duras: A Few Things I Know About Asparagus (and A Few More That I Don't)

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We just talked about picking wild asparagus - which I've never done - last night!

" I don’t know much about asparagus, just as I don’t know much about about mushroom foraging, butchering a pig, or driving away curses. I can’t know because my grandmother won’t teach me. She says I have what I learn in books and that is better because she only finished four years of school and this is a hard life and who would want the skills for a hard life. But I want to know." Rebecca Duras: A Few Things I Know About Asparagus (and A Few More That I Don't)

Not all Balkan blooms are soft and fragrant—some are green, spiky, and delicious. This week, Rebecca Duras takes us to Istria for a hands-on introduction to the art of wild asparagus picking and shows us what to do with it once we’re back in the kitchen.🌱
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/a-few...

" I start with lots of ingredients and no plan. I end up with a stack of cake layers and cream. Some parts are broken and uneven. The cream is melting. I throw on as many strawberries as it will take, hoping to hide the rough parts. In the end, I am pleased with my efforts. The cake is an overflow of strawberries. I have to remove shelves to fit it in the fridge. It looks like a fabulously overdressed woman heading to a ball. I want my daughter to have loads of strawberries." Madeleine Corcoran: Mothers Who Eat the Good Strawberries

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"As I spoke to Bulgarian mothers and mothers of many other nationalities, a certain logic about the strawberries emerged. The ones who said they would eat the bad fruit and save the good for their child did it on the principle of “putting my child first.” And yet, I felt like I, too, put my children first. I just didn’t put myself last." Madeleine Corcoran: Mothers Who Eat the Good Strawberries

www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/mothe... 🍓🍓

"As I spoke to Bulgarian mothers and mothers of many other nationalities, a certain logic about the strawberries emerged. The ones who said they would eat the bad fruit and save the good for their child did it on the principle of “putting my child first.” And yet, I felt like I, too, put my children first. I just didn’t put myself last." Madeleine Corcoran: Mothers Who Eat the Good Strawberries

www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/mothe... 🍓🍓

wonderful project

“The birch tree, the washing lines, and the way the pavements crackled with meltwater from the rooftops one day and froze over the next. This seemed to illustrate, the more I observed, that birth was not one event but a painful series of coming in and out of life.” Madeleine Corcoran: Mothers Who Eat the Good Strawberries

Spring is late and somewhat treacherous this year, but our first essay in the Balkan Blooms series is here, brought to you by Madeleine Corcoran.
www.womenwritethebalkans.com/essays/mothe...