Marija Dejanović

Marija Dejanović is a poet and publisher based between Croatia and Greece. She studied Comparative Literature and Pedagogy at the University of Zagreb. She is the author of three poetry collections published in Croatia, Greece, the USA, North Macedonia, Lithuania, and Serbia. Her work has received the “Goran,” “Kvirin,” and “Zdravko Pucak” awards and was shortlisted for the Tin Ujević Award. Trilingual selections of her poetry have also been published in Germany, Turkey, and Greece.

The English translation of her latest book, Kindness Separates Night from Day, was featured by the Poetry Foundation and listed among notable translations by World Literature Today. Her poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages and published in magazines such as LitHub, Five Points, Barricade, Sprache im technischen Zeitalter, Lichtungen, and Lyrikline, among others. Her work has also been presented at numerous international festivals across Europe.

Dejanović is the recipient of several fellowships and has participated in multiple international residencies. She is a member of the Croatian Writers’ Society and the Croatian PEN Centre. She collaborates with the publishing house Thraka and serves as creative director of the international Thessalian Poetry Festival together with Thanos Gogos.

During her stay at the MQ, Dejanović will complete her first novel, "Hair Salon", a fragmented work exploring violence against women, unreliable memory, and the ecohistory of the imaginary town of Segestin, inspired by the author’s hometown in continental Croatia. The story follows Helena, a worker in a strange salon whose owner and clients begin disappearing, and Mici, a journalist investigating the case. Rumors emerge of Ženomor, a pseudo-folkloric figure linked to the disappearances, blurring the line between myth and reality. Formally, the novel combines internal monologue, salon dialogue, fictional newspaper clippings, and poetic fragments, with language becoming increasingly unstable as Helena’s condition deteriorates. The landscape itself–rivers, woods, postindustrial streets, and traces of past wars–acts as a character, exploring memory beyond human experience and the tension between decay and endurance.

During her stay in Vienna, Dejanović will also be presenting poems from her forthcoming book "Throat", which is due to be published in winter 2026 by Sandorf in Croatia.