Aleksandar Hemon

Aleksandar Hemon (born 1964) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian fiction writer and journalist.

Hemon was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Yugoslavia, to a father of Ukrainian descent and Serbian mother. Hemon's great-grandfather, Teodor Hemon, came to Bosnia from Western Ukraine prior to World War I, when both countries were a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Hemon graduated from the University of Sarajevo with a degree in literature in 1990. After moving to Chicago in 1992 knowing little English, and finding himself unable to write in his native Bosnian, he resolved to learn English within five years.

In 1995, he began to write in English, and his work soon appeared in "The New Yorker", "Esquire", "The Paris Review", and elsewhere. In 2000 Hemon published his first book, "The Question of Bruno", which included short stories and a novella. His first novel, "Nowhere Man", followed in 2002. "Nowhere Man" concerns Jozef Pronek, a character who earlier appeared in one of the stories in "The Question of Bruno".

As an accomplished fiction writer who learned English as an adult, Hemon has some similarities to Joseph Conrad, which he acknowledges through allusion in "The Question of Bruno". All of his stories deal in some way with the Yugoslav wars, Bosnia, or Chicago, but they vary substantially in genre.

Hemon was awarded a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004.

Hemon has a bi-weekly column called "Hemonwood" in the Sarajevo-based magazine, "BH Dani" ("BH Days").

His latest novel, "The Lazarus Project", was released in May 2008.

He wrote an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times on July 27, 2008 entitled [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27hemon.html Genocide’s Epic Hero] which discusses Radovan Karadzic's capture. The article puts into historical context how Mr Karadzic's knowledge and appreciation of Serbian epic poetry fit into his dream of a greater Serbia.

External links

* [http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2008/09/22/080922fi_fiction_hemon "The Noble Truths of Suffering"] by Aleksander Hemon
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2301053.htm] Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval, ABC Radio National The Book Show,on The Lazarus Project,18th July 2008
* [http://www.untitledbooks.com/pages/interview/index.asp?InterviewID=58 Interview with Aleksandar Hemon] "Untitled Books" September 2008
* [http://www.habitusmag.com/index.php?id=40&section=article "Sarajevo Is..." in "Habitus: A Diaspora Journal."]
* [http://www.bombsite.com/issues/72/articles/2328 Short magazine profile of Aleksander Hemon] by Jenifer Berman
* [http://dir.salon.com/story/books/review/2002/10/10/hemon/index.html Salon review of Hemon's novel Nowhere Man] by Laura Miller
* [http://www.pwf.cz/en/aleksandar-hemon/ 17th Prague Writer's Festival page with a short bio, an interview and links to Hemon's online works]
* [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023fi_fiction "Stairway to Heaven"] by Aleksander Hemon
* [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/09/03/070903fa_fact_hemon "Rationed"] by Aleksander Hemon
* [http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2000/04/27/hemon_interview/index.html Salon interview with Hemon] by Laura Miller
* [http://nextbook.org/cultural/feature.html?id=836 Nextbook audio interview with Hemon] by Sara Ivry
* [http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2002/02/14/UndefinedSection/the-Next.Nabokov.Teaches.At.Northwestern-1908943.shtml "The 'next Nabokov' teaches at Northwestern" (Feb. 2002)] by Jonathan M. Katz