Goran Simic

Goran Simic, a Bosnian poet, is recognized in Europe and the US for his works of poetry, essays, short stories and theatre.

Goran Simic was born in Bosnia in 1952 and has written eleven volumes of poetry, drama and short fiction, including "Sprinting from the Graveyard" (Oxford, 1997), ; his work has been translated into nine languages and has been published and performed in several European countries. One of the most prominent writers of the former Yugoslavia, Simic was trapped in the siege of Sarajevo. In 1995 he and his family were able to settle in Canada as the result of a Freedom to Write Award from PEN. "Immigrant Blues" was Simic's second full-length volume of poems in English, and the first to be published in Canada. This was followed by two books published in 2005: a poetry collection, "From Sarajevo, With Sorrow" -- which involves a retranslation of the earlier, bowdlerized versions found in David Harsent's "Sprinting from the Graveyard"; and "Yesterday's People", a collection of short fiction, which was shortlisted for both the Relit Award and the Danuta Gleed Award for best first collection of short fiction. (both published by Biblioasis.) A "Selected Poems" is tentatively scheduled to be published in the Fall of 2007.

In 2006, Simic founded Luna Publications in Toronto, Canada. Simic joined the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of The University of Guelph in September 2006.