User:Céideadh/Dario Džamonja

Dario Džamonja (Sarajevo, 18 January 1955 - Sarajevo, 15 October 2001) was a Bosnian-Herzegovinian writer, journalist and columnist with the magazines Slobodna Bosna, Oslobođenje, Kolumnista, as well as an editor with the magazine Lica.

Biography
Dario Džamonja was born 18 January 1955 in Sarajevo, where he attended secondary school. He never finished school, spending his time in cafés instead. His parents were separated, so throughout his life he had the feeling that he belonged to no-one or nothing other than to the city of Sarajevo. From the outset Dario's life was beset by tragic events: first, his father died by suicide, as did his uncle; then his mother emigrated to the Netherlands. He was brought up by his grandparents at 11 Jezero Street (subsequently renamed Kate Govorušić Street). Dario was in Sarajevo when the war started in Bosnia and Hercegovina. He remained there until 1993, when he was wounded and went, along with his family, to the USA. He returned to Sarajevo in 1998. He was the father of two daughters - Nevena and Vesna. He is also survived by two sisters - Marta and Mima.

Literary Activity
Džamonja's own life provided a rich fountain of experiences on which he later drew for his stories. His literary beginnings date back to his elementary school, where his simplicity of expression so impressed his language teacher that she awarded him the highly respectable grade of 4 plus. He wrote later that a story on this subject alone earned him 30,000 dinars. In his prose writings he sometimes presented aspects of himself as real characters - subtly, metaphorically, with harshness and realism - and he himself played the role of protagonist and antagonist between these characters, with profound honesty and persistent ambiguity.

Dario Džamonja made his living from writing columns and short newspaper commentary pieces on everyday subjects. His published work reflected the authentic personality of someone who could write things that other people stayed silent about. The main themes of his stories were loneliness, drunkenness and hangovers, his filthy-dirty apartment, the tragic fate which dogged him, his grandfather and the lives of other people - so apparently ordinary, at least on the surface

He was a columnist for the magazine Slobodna Bosna [Free Bosnia] (which gave him the opportunity to write about his everyday life in the USA when he was living in exile there), Oslobođenje [Liberation], Kolumnista and worked in an editorial capacity for the journal Lica.   He made his large-fiction debut in 1979 with "Stories from my Street" ("Priče iz moje ulice"), a collection of some 50 pages. Then in 1985 came "The Health Booklet" ("Zdravstvena knjižica"), "A Handbook" ("Priručnik") in 1988 and "These days" in 1989. The 10 books he published during his life bear the imprint of his inimitable Sarajevo world view - a unique expressiveness which bore witness to a time of true misery which gnawed away at his being.

Published works

 * 1) Priče iz moje ulice [Stories from my street], Oslobođenje, Sarajevo, 1979.
 * 2) Zdravstvena knjižica [The Health Booklet], Svjetlost, Sarajevo, 1985.
 * 3) Drugo izdanje [Second Edition], Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1987.
 * 4) Priručnik [A Handbook], Svjetlost, Sarajevo, 1988.
 * 5) These days, 1989.
 * 6) Dirty laundry, 1990.
 * 7) Prljavi veš [Dirty Laundry], Self-published work, Sarajevo, 1991.
 * 8) Pisma iz ludnice [Letters from the Madhouse], Slobodna Bosna, Sarajevo, 2001.
 * 9) Ptica na žici [Bird on a Wire], Buybook, Sarajevo, 2002.; 2nd expanded edition, Buybook, Sarajevo, 2003.
 * 10) Priče [Stories] (Dario Džamonja), Pressing, Sarajevo, 2003.

Literary Awards
Dario Džamonja received theVeselin Masleša prize for the best prose work of 1985; a Fund Free Expression Award in 1993; second prize in non-fiction category from Writers Club Madison in 1994 i otkupne nagrade za poeziju Madison, 1996. godine.