Descant launches Bosnia and Herzegovina: Between Loss and Recovery We are happy to announce that The Descant Arts & Letters Foundation will release its Spring 2012 issue, entitled Bosnia and Herzegovina: Between Loss and Recovery, with York University Professor Amila Buturovic as Guest Editor, on March 26, 2012. Bosnia and Herzegovina challenges the reader to join the ongoing dialogue concerning the multicultural Balkan region whose territory may not be large, but whose history is colossal. To celebrate the release, a public event will take place on April 10, 2012 from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at The Annex Live, located at 296 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto. At the event, we will announce the winner of the Winston Collins Prize for Best Canadian Poem. Guest Editor, Professor Amila Buturovic, the shaping force behind the issue, will give a talk on Bosnia’s certain losses and uncertain recoveries. Contributors Priscila Uppal, Jim Bartley, Gorcin Dizdar and Amela Marin will read poetry, fiction and non-fiction, while Velibor Bozovic will present a slideshow of his photographs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The event will also feature a raffle and numerous prizes, ranging from vouchers for various Toronto venues to selections of newly published books. Cities and towns of Bosnia and Herzegovina have always fascinated residents and visitors with their eclectic architectural styles and cultural heritages. The Nobel Prize winning Yugoslav author, Ivo Andric, wrote his ode to Visegrad in The Bridge on the Drina, while the famed poetry of Aleksa Santic is steeped in the imagery of Mostar. Both of these urban centres are visited in the Bosnia issue, with Edina Becirevic’s “Memories of Rape” and E. A. Carpentier’s “Mostar” contemplating the recent scarring of Visegrad and Mostar’s physical and psychical landscapes. It is the capital city Sarajevo, however, that garners most attention: Priscila Uppal, Kathy Ashby and Colin Carberry’s poems testify to the intense impressions the city makes on its many visitors. Andreea Muscurel’s “Sanitizing Memories” takes us on a brief but moving walk through the post-war streets, with stunning photographs of Sarajevo’s many charms accompanying her narrative. Amela Marin’s “You Speak What You Eat” gives us a delicious tasting of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian cuisine, while Gorcin Dizdar’s lyrical essay, “Graves of the Ancestors,” transports the reader far into Bosnia’s medieval past. The selection of writings and photographs in Descant 156: Bosnia and Herzegovina testifies to the ongoing fascination the small Balkan country continues to exert over the international community at large and over our local literary community in particular. For further information, please contact: Vera DeWaard, Managing Editor [email protected] Tanya Pikula, Production Editor, 156 [email protected]
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