Radmila Petrovic (1996) is one of the most soughtafter poets in the region. She has been represented in anthologies, domestic
and international journals and participated in numerous festivals and poetry readings across Europe. Her last collection of poems was
published in North Macedonia in 2021, and German and Polish editions are in the works. Her poetry has also been translated into more than a dozen languages.
- My creative activity results from my current or past societal and cultural surrounding. I am the product of the environment I was surrounded by and my poems are too. If I had lived differently, I would write differently. The change of environment brings new light to what was and what is now and is very inspiring.
- I think all of them, the personal surrounding, the town and the country are equally important for me as a writer.But it is also equally important to change the context, to go somewhere where nothing is close and familiar to you.Residencies for writers are of paramount importance here. When you step away from your country and your context, you can look at them even more accurately and clearly. Also, you gain something with which you can compare what you already know. You learn many new things, you get to know fellow artists, their ways of thinking and creating. From this confrontation with other possible ways of living and creating, tension is born. And tension is key to artistic creation.
- I spent a month in Pristina.I came back home with great experiences from there. It was challenging to go there given the political circumstances and the war that took place in the not-so-distant past. But it was also very encouraging to realize thatpeople are only people, that no one is a supporter of war and that they will accept you on a human level no matter where you come from. I realized that we are very similar to our Albanian neighbours, and that it is politics that has been trying, and unfortunately succeeding, to separate us for years. Pristina is a beautiful city and this change of place and context as well as countless conversations with Albanians, Serbs and Goranians brought me a lot of inspiration and new perspectives.
- My verses are my rebellion against the culture of silence that is present in the Balkans and which has damaged us more than wars. I write wondering what happens if we say everything we are “forbidden” to talk about. I am trying to write it all in the language of nature with words as strong as thunder, and yet as gentle as a newborn lamb. But, let the songs speak for themselves.
