Biljana D. Obradović
Born	(1961-02-25) February 25, 1961 Bitola, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Republic of North Macedonia)
Occupation	professor, poet, critic, translator, editor
Language	Serbian, English, Modern Greek, French
Nationality	Serbian citizenship and American citizenship - dual citizenship.
Alma mater	Belgrade University (B.A.) Virginia Commonwealth University (M.F.A.) University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Ph.D.)
Notable awards	Rastko Petrović Award: Best Book (1997) Miloš Djordjević Book Prize(2019)
Website
biljanaobradovic.wordpress.com

Biljana D. Obradović is a Serbian-American poet, critic, translator, and professor of English who has lived in Yugoslavia, Greece, India and the United States.^[1]

Early life

Obradoviċ was born in Bitola, Macedonia of Serbian parents, Dragoslav and Vera Obradoviċ, who originally came from the area of Aleksinac, Serbia. Her father was a customs officer, then a diplomat. She learned English at the age of ten at Pinewood Schools of Thessaloniki in Salonika, Greece which she attended from grade five to nine. She moved to Belgrade, Serbia, briefly then to Bombay, India, where she attended Cathedral and John Connon School during high school.

In 1980, she returned to Yugoslavia to pursue a B.A. in English language and literature at the Faculty of Philology of Belgrade University. In 1988, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, for an M.F.A. in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University which she received in 1991, after which she moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, for a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Career

Obradoviċ considers herself a transnational poet, drawing on her lived experience in many countries and her fluency in multiple languages.^[2]

Her first collection of poems, Frozen Embraces, a bilingual edition, won the Rastko Petrović Award for the Best Poem of 1997 and Best Book of 1998. Subsequent collections include Le Riche Monde in 1999, Three Poets in New Orleans in 2000, Little Disruptions in 2012, and Incognito in 2017.

In addition to her own poetry, other works include her Serbian translations of John Gery's American Ghost: Selected Poems (Raška Škola, Belgrade/ Merrick, New York, Cross-Cultural Communications, 1999), Serbian translations of Stanley Kunitz, The Long Boat (co-published by Plato, Belgrade and Cross-Cultural Communications, Merrick, NY, 2007), and Fives: Fifty Poems by Serbian and American Poets, A Bilingual Anthology, as editor and translator (Co-published by Contact Line, Belgrade, and Cross-Cultural Communications, Merrick, NY, 2002), an English translation of Bratislav Milanović's, Doors in a Meadow (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2011), a translation of poems by Patrizia de Rachewiltz, Dear Friends (Književno Društvo Sveti Sava, 2012), and a translation of a selection of poems by Bruce Weigl, What Saves Us (Beogradska Knjiga 2013).

Obradović's work has appeared in such anthologies as Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America and Key West: A Collection, as well as Kletva [Curse].

She also reviews books for World Literature Today and others.

In 2019, Obradović received the Miloš Djordjević Book Prize for Cat Painters, an anthology of contemporary Serbian poetry.^[3] She received the Masaryk Academy of Arts Medal for Artistic Achievements, October 20, 2000, Prague, Czech Republic, and is a member of the Association of Writers of Serbia. She is professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, where she lives with her husband John Gery and son Petar.

Published works

See also

• List of Serbs
• Charles Simic
• Serbs in America

References