Poetry. Translated from the Bosnian by Ammiel Alcalay. Following his depiction of Bosnia under siege in the much celebrated SARAJEVO BLUES, Semezdin Mehmedinović now explores the vast space of his new continent. Mostly written in response to a cross-country journey by train in post 9-11 America, Mehmedinović's NINE ALEXANDRIAS provides a poetry of witness and testimony of a very different order. In this nightmarish and exhilarating odyssey, Mehmedinović's political acuity is displayed everywhere but barely pronounced. In Washington, D.C., his new home, the graphic and tactile affirmation of life amidst horror depicted so masterfully in SARAJEVO BLUES, turns into an eerie silence that permeates both the expanse of the land and the heart of the American empire.

Author City: ALEXANDRIA, VA USA

Semezdin Mehmedinović was born in Tuzla, Bosnia, in 1960 and is the author of four books. In 1993 he was co-writer and co-director, with Benjamin Filipović, of Mizaldo, one of the first Bosnian films shot during the war. The film was presented at the Berlin Film Festival in 1994, and won the first prize at the Mediterranean Festival in Rome the following year. He, his wife, and their child left Bosnia and came to the U.S. as polical refugees in 1996.