Damir Šodan (1964, Split) is a poet, playwright, editor and translator who graduated from Zagreb University with a BA in English Literature and History. He has published four volumes of poetry: Sound Changes (1996), The Middle World (2001), Letters to a Wild Scythian, (2009) and Café Apollinaire (2013), two collections of plays: Safe Area (2002), The Night of the Long Beams (2009) and an anthology of contemporary Croatian "neorealist" poetry: Walk on the Other Side (2010). He was awarded the Držić prize for the burlesque Chick Lit (2012) and the 1st prize at the playwriting competition for ex-Yugoslav writers in Vienna (2000) for the dark comedy Safe Area. Internationally, his work has been among other featured in The American Poetry Review (2007), New European Poets, (Graywolf Press, USA, 2008), Les Poètes de la Méditerranée (Gallimard, 2010), The World Record and A Hundred Years' War (Bloodaxe, 2012 and 2014). He translated Raymond Carver, Leonard Cohen, Charles Bukowski, Charles Simic, Richard Brautigan and Frank O'Hara into Croatian. He is an associate editor of Poezija and Quorum magazines in Zagreb.
Madiba in "Top Gear"
"have you ever had a lap-dance?"
roared from the doorway
the former traveling salesman
of plush Paddington bears,
Mr Jeremy Clarkson, nowadays a slightly arrogant
and supposedly humorous
British TV-star;
the host of an automobile show
viewed devotedly all across Europe.
upon hearing that, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
(whose life and work need no discussion here)
simply raised his eyebrows gently
and directed his gaze towards the ceiling fan
as if the answer to such an unexpected
and ludicrous question could drop down
from somewhere above.
"Madiba, you don't have to answer that!"
the ever-considerate and attentive Zelda
quickly jumped in, but in his thoughts
he was already racing back to
Robben Island during that fatal 1964
trying to remember if back then
anyone around him had been shaking
their ass except maybe when stung
by Apartheid's eel-like baton
slippery and hard
that always unmistakably found its way
to a piece of black flesh
classified as "class D"
and locked in an eight-by-seven foot cell
or maybe later in 1982
in that "comfy" maximum security facility Pollsmoor
where those upgraded into a lighter category
were allowed to receive and send
as many as fifty-two letters a year!
no, he could not remember if anyone had
merrily wriggled his behind
unless plagued by a case of bloody dysentery
or tortured by a sneaky pubic crab or two...
but maybe later in 1988 somebody
had done it at that quite permissible establishment Victor Verster
but Nelson had hardly been aware of anything then
as he was recovering from a mean case of TBC...
"you don't have to answer, Madiba"!
repeated Ms La Grange
and Nelson just smiled
as if watching a kid walking towards him
with a rare specimen of turtle in his hand...
"no!" he finally replied succinctly
so that the conversation might continue
with the expected civility and finesse.
yet, at the end of the meeting
he looked Clarkson in the eye and asked:
"have you ever been on the Moon, Jeremy"?
for it is only from there perhaps
that the dry British humor could hit the even drier
heart of black Africa - in the right place.
The Fifties
after Adam Zagajewski
father and his father
stomp down the gravel road
all the way to the town to see a football game.
high noon buzzes through the young summer air;
the roar of cicadas in the pine trees,
glassy hoppers glint in the grass:
the Mediterranean
as we once knew it
– is still there.
a bit further to the north
the airy crowns of convicts
melt under the belting Sun
dripping like the sweat underneath
their sleeveless white T-shirts
as their sad and bitter sigh
carries itself all the way to the gray Maltese docks
then echoing out into the icy mountains
of the Altai region in the far east.
somewhere behind Žrnovnica
grandfather, like an ancient lizard,
suddenly scowls his fissured face.
wincing from his tight shoes
that are killing him,
that damn pair of footwear
he's sharing with his first cousin,
a locksmith who compulsively steals rusty pliers
and steel nails from the dusty workshop
of the local power-plant,
absolutely unable to explain to himself for what
purpose in the devil's name he needs them for.
simultaneously, in a Dedinje salon in Belgrade,
Tito cracks jokes as comrades
from the Central Committee laugh raucously
while he tries out his new metallic
- polished as a dog's balls -
light duty lathe machine.
all across the country
generations with pointed chins, much like Modigliani's,
are busy building Socialism
with a human face: the system
that would gradually like mean drops of vitriol
burn a deep hole in their souls.
but in father's head
the world still bubbles unexplored,
floating like a translucent jellyfish across the unsailed sea
as he daydreams of a new DKW motorcycle
as black and shiny as Silvana Mangano's high heels
and as powerful as Mons Jerko's untied robe;
so in my thoughts
- for I can't help it -
I worry endlessly about that boy,
because I know his ride
will be an uncertain and long one.
I wish I could tell him not to worry,
to relax and take it easy for everything will
more or less someday fall into place.
but words fail to leave me:
perhaps I have no mouth to speak them yet,
perhaps I'm not around as much as I should be,
perhaps I'm myself still only - slowly but surely - just getting there.
Ramones On the Bedroom Wall
the first thing I see
every morning
is Dee Dee's reproving gaze
the man is no moralist,
but his knowing, junkie eyes
have that effect
they give me the urge to start my day off
by apologising to everything: from the flowers in the Ikea vase
to the Pentecostal Church across the street
but in the end
like a born-again opportunist
I sneakily manage to avoid it
leaning further to the right is Joey
the perpetually understated
obsessive-compulsive
with the hips of a Russian gymnast
and the hair of a crazy headmistress
like a shaggy Heraclites from Queens
he tells you that everything can change
that at any moment you can be grabbed by a dark avatar
or end up blacklisted by some secret sect, trade, ministry or committee
on the far left - oh the irony! - is the Nazi-schatzi marmot
Johnny, whose face says that he’s in it
(the band, not the picture)
only for the money, the papers, the royalties
and Joey’s ex-girlfriend, leading the former to pen him the ditty
The KKK Took my Baby Away!
beside him stands the always amiable Tamás Erdélyi
aka Tommy Ramone1, a Holocaust survivor, born in Budapest,
now a mandolin player with his own bluegrass band,
the steady compass and last remaining member
of the legendary foursome’s first line-up, dubbed by Spin magazine
- alongside The Beatles - as the greatest r'n'r band of all time.
so these are my four morning perspectives:
the four blackbirds of Wallace Stevens,
my wife’s four zen-jokes,
who carefully guard
the gentle rebelliousness of her Anglo-American
maiden roots,
all those innocent and rosy dreams
of a perfect world, where Courtney, like Amfortas,
still embraces her dead Kurt
while poet Ann Lauterbach
wallows endlessly in her affectations,
like the ethereal essence of mannerism,
and Germaine Greer lives in a home
on three acres, with two dogs, sixteen geese
and a fluctuating number of pigeon wings,
a world so far removed
from my toothless Balkan accordionists
and their bloody war cries,
a world where it’s perfectly natural
for high school girls to dream of translucent, expensive,
engagement rings,
gaudy
and shiny, kitschy and smooth,
huge like the lobby of Fitzgerald’s Ritz,
even though these are nothing more
than transitional objects,
as psychologists call them,
which we use to clip the wings
of that sweet bird of youth
before she turns her back on us for good.
The Afternoon of a Clown
for Leopoldo María Panero2
a serpent of light
draws unbearably close.
the epaulette
of Franco's raincoat
expands in the orange pupil
of its eye.
under a massive desk
the stony faces of cardinals
silently service
the horny black bulge.
someone's taking out the trash
with a tattooed siren on his arm
and a leather dog collar
around his neck.
but there's no one else
on the street
except for the unbuttoned
widow on the balcony
caressing a shiny spike
behind the cast iron fence.
on the muggy blanket of summer
amidst a siesta
overturned garbage cans
rattle like dying
industrial plants
in the ploughed
silicone valleys
of some relative future tense.
finally, out of a cat's fur
you clearly hear
the pompous and vile
Devil's cough
as loud as
an empty silo.
at 03:00 PM on a Friday
in the yard of the mental clinic in Las Palmas
there you are
- el poeta es un pequeño dios!3
On the Train to Cascais
on the train to Cascais
you saw the most beautiful girl.
with olive skin
and round breasts
(just like Ornella Muti's)
wearing a T-shirt
by Dolce & Gabbana,
poised like St. Theresa of Avila
contemplating that spear
about to pierce her chest
etc.
she must have been put off
by the Wittgenstein's biography
in your hands, for she suddenly
sprung up and exited
in Estoril,
as you continued to Cascais
with the sad realisation
that you'd just missed
the woman of your life
(or somebody else's):
an Atlantean as beautiful
as the body of her slippery language,
juicy and rustling
like the samba
you heard that summer
on the lake of Bohinj
when you were eighteen.
so what choice did you have,
but to continue reading that damn book
bitter in the knowledge
that the limits of your language
are indeed the limits of your world
that is the case;
much like this one
whereof you wouldn't want to be silent;
not even in death.
Translated by Damir Šodan and Majda Bakočević
_______________________________
[1] Tommy Ramone died in 2014.
[2] Leopoldo María Panero (1948-2014), arguably one of the finest contemporary Spanish poets, a victim of Franco's regime, who lived and died in a psychiatric asylum in Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
[3] Vincente Huidobro (1893-1948) Chilean poet known for promoting avant-garde literary movements in Chile, creator and the greatest exponent of the literary movement called Creacionismo.
Kritična masa raspisuje novi natječaj književne nagrade "Kritična masa" za mlade autorice i autore (do 35 godina).
Ovo je osmo izdanje nagrade koja pruža pregled mlađe prozne scene (širi i uži izbor) i promovira nova prozna imena.
Prva nagrada iznosi 700 eura (bruto iznos) i dodjeljuje se uz plaketu.
U konkurenciju ulaze svi dosad neobjavljeni oblici proznih priloga (kratka priča, odlomci iz većih formi, prozne crtice). Osim prozne fikcije, prihvatljivi su i dokumentarni prozni tekstovi te dnevničke forme koji posjeduju književnu dimenziju.
Prethodnih su godina nagradu dobili Ana Rajković, Jelena Zlatar, Marina Gudelj, Mira Petrović, Filip Rutić, Eva Simčić i Ana Predan.
Krajnji rok za slanje prijava je 10.12.2024.
Pravo sudjelovanja imaju autorice i autori rođeni od 10.12.1989. nadalje.
NAGRADA "KRITIČNA MASA" - UŽI IZBOR
Robert Aralica (Šibenik, 1997.) studij hrvatskoga i engleskoga jezika i književnosti završava 2020. godine na Filozofskom fakultetu Sveučilišta u Splitu. U slobodno vrijeme bavi se pisanjem proze i produkcijom elektroničke glazbe. Svoje literarne radove objavljivao je u studentskim časopisima Humanist i The Split Mind. 2022. kriminalističkom pričom Natkrovlje od čempresa osvojio je prvo mjesto na natječaju Kristalna pepeljara. Trenutno je zaposlen u II. i V. splitskoj gimnaziji kao nastavnik hrvatskoga jezika.
NAGRADA "KRITIČNA MASA" - UŽI IZBOR
Iva Esterajher (Ljubljana, 1988.) živi i radi u Zagrebu. Diplomirala je politologiju na Fakultetu političkih znanosti. Aktivno se bavi likovnom umjetnošću (crtanje, slikarstvo, grafički rad), fotografijom, kreativnim pisanjem te pisanjem filmskih i glazbenih recenzija. Kratke priče i poezija objavljene su joj u književnim časopisima i na portalima (Urbani vračevi, UBIQ, Astronaut, Strane, NEMA, Afirmator) te je sudjelovala na nekoliko književnih natječaja i manifestacija (Večernji list, Arteist, FantaSTikon, Pamela festival i dr.).
NAGRADA "KRITIČNA MASA" - UŽI IZBOR
Nikola Pavičić (Zagreb, 2004.) živi u Svetoj Nedelji. Pohađa Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Piše, napose poeziju i lirsku prozu, te sa svojim tekstovima nastoji sudjelovati u literarnim natječajima i časopisima. U slobodno vrijeme voli proučavati književnost i povijest te učiti jezike.
NAGRADA "KRITIČNA MASA" - UŽI IZBOR
Luca Kozina (Split, 1990.) piše prozu, poeziju i književne kritike. Dobitnica je nagrade Prozak u sklopu koje je 2021. objavljena zbirka priča Važno je imati hobi. Zbirka je ušla u uži izbor nagrade Edo Budiša. Dobitnica je nagrada za poeziju Mak Dizdar i Pisanje na Tanane izdavačke kuće Kontrast u kategoriji Priroda. Dobitnica je nagrade Ulaznica za poeziju. Od 2016. piše književne kritike za portal Booksu. Članica je splitske udruge Pisci za pisce. Zajedno s Ružicom Gašperov i Sarom Kopeczky autorica je knjige Priručnica - od ideje do priče (2023).
NAGRADA "KRITIČNA MASA" - UŽI IZBOR
Ana Predan (Pula, 1996.) odrasla je u Vodnjanu. U šestoj godini počinje svirati violinu, a u šesnaestoj pjevati jazz. Po završetku srednje škole seli u Ljubljanu gdje studira međunarodne odnose, a onda u Trst gdje upisuje jazz pjevanje pri tršćanskom konzervatoriju na kojem je diplomirala ove godine s temom radništva u glazbi Istre. U toku studiranja putuje u Estoniju gdje godinu dana provodi na Erasmus+ studentskoj razmjeni. Tada sudjeluje na mnogo vrijednih i važnih projekata, i radi s umjetnicima i prijateljima, a počinje se i odmicati od jazza, te otkriva eksperimentalnu i improviziranu glazbu, te se počinje zanimati za druge, vizualne medije, osobito film. Trenutno živi u Puli, gdje piše za Radio Rojc i predaje violinu u Glazbenoj školi Ivana Matetića-Ronjgova. Piše oduvijek i često, najčešće sebi.
NAGRADA "SEDMICA & KRITIČNA MASA" - UŽI IZBOR
Eva Simčić (Rijeka, 1990.) do sada je kraću prozu objavljivala na stranicama Gradske knjižnice Rijeka, na blogu i Facebook stranici Čovjek-Časopis, Reviji Razpotja i na stranici Air Beletrina. Trenutno živi i radi u Oslu gdje dovršava doktorat iz postjugoslavenske književnosti i kulture.
Jyrki K. Ihalainen (r. 1957.) finski je pisac, prevoditelj i izdavač. Od 1978. Ihalainen je objavio 34 zbirke poezije na finskom, engleskom i danskom. Njegova prva zbirka poezije, Flesh & Night , objavljena u Christianiji 1978. JK Ihalainen posjeduje izdavačku kuću Palladium Kirjat u sklopu koje sam izrađuje svoje knjige od početka do kraja: piše ih ili prevodi, djeluje kao njihov izdavač, tiska ih u svojoj tiskari u Siuronkoskom i vodi njihovu prodaju. Ihalainenova djela ilustrirali su poznati umjetnici, uključujući Williama S. Burroughsa , Outi Heiskanen i Maritu Liulia. Ihalainen je dobio niz uglednih nagrada u Finskoj: Nuoren Voiman Liito 1995., nagradu za umjetnost Pirkanmaa 1998., nagradu Eino Leino 2010. Od 2003. Ihalainen je umjetnički direktor Anniki Poetry Festivala koji se odvija u Tampereu. Ihalainenova najnovija zbirka pjesama je "Sytykkei", objavljena 2016 . Bavi se i izvođenjem poezije; bio je, između ostalog, gost na albumu Loppuasukas finskog rap izvođača Asa 2008., gdje izvodi tekst pjesme "Alkuasukas".
Maja Marchig (Rijeka, 1973.) živi u Zagrebu gdje radi kao računovođa. Piše poeziju i kratke priče. Polaznica je više radionica pisanja poezije i proze. Objavljivala je u brojnim časopisima u regiji kao što su Strane, Fantom slobode, Tema i Poezija. Članica literarne organizacije ZLO. Nekoliko puta je bila finalistica hrvatskih i regionalnih književnih natječaja (Natječaja za kratku priču FEKPa 2015., Međunarodnog konkursa za kratku priču “Vranac” 2015., Nagrade Post scriptum za književnost na društvenim mrežama 2019. i 2020. godine). Njena kratka priča “Terapija” osvojila je drugu nagradu na natječaju KROMOmetaFORA2020. 2022. godine objavila je zbirku pjesama Spavajte u čarapama uz potporu za poticanje književnog stvaralaštva Ministarstva kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske u biblioteci Poezija Hrvatskog društva pisaca.
Juha Kulmala (r. 1962.) finski je pjesnik koji živi u Turkuu. Njegova zbirka "Pompeijin iloiset päivät" ("Veseli dani Pompeja") dobila je nacionalnu pjesničku nagradu Dancing Bear 2014. koju dodjeljuje finska javna radiotelevizija Yle. A njegova zbirka "Emme ole dodo" ("Mi nismo Dodo") nagrađena je nacionalnom nagradom Jarkko Laine 2011. Kulmalina poezija ukorijenjena je u beatu, nadrealizmu i ekspresionizmu i često se koristi uvrnutim, lakonskim humorom. Pjesme su mu prevedene na više jezika. Nastupao je na mnogim festivalima i klubovima, npr. u Engleskoj, Njemačkoj, Rusiji, Estoniji i Turskoj, ponekad s glazbenicima ili drugim umjetnicima. Također je predsjednik festivala Tjedan poezije u Turkuu.