Snjezana Marinkovic

For sixteen years of my life Yugoslavia was my country, Serbo-Croatian was my language, and my name Snjezana, meaning Snow-White, was commonly Yugoslavian. Then everything changed. Territory was divided, cities were renamed, people ethnically labeled, and many of “Snow-White’s dwarfs” took guns and became soldiers. Conflicts and violence spread as deadly disease and Yugoslavia became a war-devastated country. But, I was among people who got the opportunity to survive, to find their refuge, and to tell their stories. My writing was published in numerous European publications including magazines San, Ty& Ja, Pribechy Lasky, Lasky Do Kabelky, and Divka. In 1996, I received Frintiskove Lazne Prize for Literature. My stories and poems were read on Radio Sarajevo in Yugoslavia, Radio Brno, Radio Plzen, and RCT 1 television program in the Czech Republic, and Literary Event of Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch, Texas. Currently, I focus on conveying a message of peace, I write, and I enjoy my life, without the dwarfs and without a fairy tale.