Instagram story viewer> @joshjedansrdjan> Tagged
POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED
Srđan Miljević (b. 1985, Belgrade, Serbia) is a writer and activist whose work primarily focuses on short fiction. His first short story collection, First Time for All of Us (Svima nam je prvi put), was published in 2019 by Zenit Books. Srđan is currently a writer-in-residence at the Sofia Literature and Translation House through a residency program supported by TRADUKI, the National Culture Fund, and Sofia Municipality. It was a pleasure speaking with him about queer life, art, and activism in the Balkans - don’t miss the full conversation and his short story, “The First Wave,” on our website.

Srđan: “One action from Belgrade has stayed with me for years because I found it both funny and culturally very intelligent. In Serbia, there’s a well-known saying connected to slava – the traditional family celebration of a saint’s day – which goes: ‘Na slavu se ne zove, na slavu se dolazi’ [You don’t invite people to a slava, people just come]. Years ago, before Pride, activists in Belgrade turned that phrase into a guerrilla street campaign by spraying a modified version across the city: 'Na Prajd se ne zove, na Prajd se dolazi.' [You don’t invite people to pride, people just come].
I loved that action because it used something deeply local instead of borrowing imported activist language. It played with tradition, humour and collective memory in a way people immediately recognized. I think that’s something very important: instead of rejecting local culture, we should learn how to engage with it creatively and critically. The most powerful communication often happens when people recognize themselves inside the message."
.
.
.
#queerbalkans #queersofia #queeractivism #queerliterature #queerwriter #queerlife #balkanliterature
23
back to up