Editor Radmila Manojlovic Zarkovic, who helped to conceive the I Remember Project, was able to produce only a handful of copies of the orgininal Sjecam Se—scrounging paper and professional help under wartime conditions. A lawyer who had worked in the culturally diverse city of Tuzla, she came with her two daughters to Belgrade as a refugee. She continues to live there and works for the feminist anti-war group Women in Black (founded in 1991). Fran Peavey is a social change activist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She brought this project to Aunt Lute Books and wrote the introduction based on information from her work in the former Yugoslavia. She has traveled to all the regions involved in the war, both during the war and in its aftermath, to work with refugees and anti-war groups. She is the author of By Life's Grace: Musings on the Essence of Social Change. |
I Remember: Writings by Bosnian Women Refugees Radmila Manojlovic Zarkovic, editor Originally published by Women in Black in Belgrade, I Remember is a collection of short memoirs in prose and poetry written by Bosnian women refugees and accompanied by their drawings. The book is a testament to the strength of these thirty-two women of all religions, ages and ethnic backgrounds, and to their commitment to a multi-ethnic society. As in the original, each of the writings appears handwritten, as well as in Serbo-Croation, Spanish, Italian, and English. Aunt Lute has tried to replicate, as much as the means of mass production allows, the look and feel of the original handmade book (of which only 50 were made because of wartime disruptions).
“In her useful introduction, U.S. social change activist Fran Peavey gives a brief overview of the war and the plight of women refugees. Like the stories themselves, Peavey’s brevity and tales of activism leave the reader with a sense of hopefulness…Peavey recounts an inspirational tale of her first trip to the former Yugoslavia, when, through the help of friends, she was able to bring over 6,000 packages to women refugees.” —Sojourner “I recommend this book to those who want to learn more about the war in the former Yugoslavia; to those with a curiosity about women and war or about feminist activism in the face of a militarized society; to those who see art in the stories of women; and to those who appreciate the art of a book beyond the printed word.” —Sojourner |
