Semezdin Mehmedinović

Semezdin Mehmedinović is Bosnian writer born in Kiseljak, located near Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1960.

After studying Librarianship and Comparative Literature in Sarajevo, he worked as an editor of "Lica" and "Valter" magazines, which served as a voice of opposition to the ruling Communist regime. Mehmedinović published his first book of poetry "Modrac" at the age of 23, in 1984, and his second book "Emigrant" in 1990. Shortly before the Bosnian war, in 1991, he founded the cultural magazine "Fantom slobode" (transl. "Phantom of Freedom"). When war broke out in 1992, Mehmedinović remained in Sarajevo with his family. The same year, he published an early version of "Sarajevo Blues." Shortly thereafter, he and a group of friends founded the weekly political magazine "Dani" (transl. "Days") in 1992, to give a voice for democracy and pluralism in times of genocide. In 1996, after the collapse of Sarajevo siege and the conclusion of the Bosnian war, Mehmedinović emigrated to the United States, and currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia. "Sarajevo Blues" was published in English in 1998 and was praised by the Washington Post as one of the best literary documents of the Bosnian war. Sarajevo Blues was translated into German in 1999 while portions of the book were translated in over thirty languages. In 2002, Mehmedinović published another book of poems entitled "Devet Alexandrija", which was later published by the City Lights of San Francisco under the title "Nine Alexandrias".