Meet the two candidates from Croatia who have been selected to participate in the 2024/2025 Ulysses' Shelter 3 residency programme.
photographed by Marko Radoš
Josip Čekolj was born in 1999 in Zabok, Croatia. He holds a bachelor's degree in Croatian Language and Literature, as well as Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. Currently, he is pursuing a master's degree in Croatian language and early modern history at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He is the author of the poetry books "The Decline of Heroes and Dragons" (Junaci i zmajevi u zalasku, Mala zvona, 2022), and "A Boy Before the Harvest" (Dječak pred žetvu, Jesenski i Turk, 2023), a novel titled "The Rascals Deep in Mud" (Hahari na dnu mulja, Mala zvona, 2022), and a children's picture book titled "Srna and Mak in Pursuit of a Frightened Month" (Srna i Mak u potrazi za uplašenim mjesecom, Mala zvona, 2020). His second poetry manuscript "A Boy Before the Harvest" won the "Na vrh jezika" award and the "Zvonko Milković" award. The children's novel "The Rascals Deep in Mud" made it to the shortlist for the "Grigor Vitez," "Mato Lovrak," and "Mali princ" literary awards. He has participated in several Croatian and regional literary festivals. His short stories and poems have been published in regional and Croatian magazines and anthologies. In addition to his studies, he works as a text editor for literary works.
Luiza Bouharaoua is a writer, translator, producer and cultural worker. She is the founder of the NGO Scribonauts that has been developing and implementing artistic programs for marginalized groups since 2011. She produced short documentaries "Free Weekend", the first documentary filmed by inmates in Croatia, and "The Right to Work: The Way We Left It", the winner of the Ethics and Human Rights Award at the Days of Croatian Film 2016. The book club and the creative writing workshop in the Female Penitentiary in Požega resulted in a collaborative short story collection "Nastavi priču", for which she received the Sozial Marie Prize for social innovation in 2021. Her first book "Jesmo li to bili mi", published in 2019, is the winner of the "Prozak" National Award for the best unpublished manuscript by an author under 35, "Slavić" National Award for the best literary debut in any genre, and the "Edo Budiša" Regional Award for the best short story collection. She is the recipient of the "Mali Marulić Award", a national award for the best children's play, for a theater piece based on her upcoming picture book "Jajo i Strašni Strah" (2024). She is the winner of Central European Initiative's Award for Young Writers, awarded to one writer under 40 years of age from among 17 member countries. In 2022, she received a grant from the Croatian Audio-Visual Institute to develop a screenplay adaptation of "Jesmo li to bili mi" which is set to be made into a feature film by the production house Wolfgang and Dolly.