Slavenka Drakulić, born in Rijeka, Croatia, in 1949. Freelance journalist and novelist. Author of several books of non-fiction and of three novels. Her books have been published in thirteen countries and translated into twelve languages.
Writer-in-Residence (1 September 2001 – 31 January 2002)
My initial plan was to work on a book, a collection of political essays and stories about war criminals on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia in The Hague. The title of the book is: “The Hague: Why We Need Monsters – Political Essays and Other Stories”.
NIAS was ideally located for my project as it was close to The Hague. This was important for me because I could visit the tribunal once a week, or more, and attend proceedings, collect documents and talk to the people working there. I do not think I could have accomplished what I did without being at NIAS.
I also had a chance to talk and exchange ideas with two people at NIAS, the historian Paul Koedijk who was working on a report about Srebrenica and the role of Dutch UN troops – and the psychologist Willem Wagenaar. Frequent discussions with both of them helped me to clarify my ideas and I greatly appreciate that opportunity.
I finished about half of the essays and my book should be published at the beginning of the year 2003 in various European countries as well as in the USA. In addition I wrote a number of articles that were published in Croatia, Sweden and Germany as well as two papers for future conferences. I also published an essay on Milosevic in Suddeutsche Zeitung and La Stampa, and a story in Dagnes Nyheter as well as in the Croatian weekly Feral Tribune.
I also wrote an essay on ‘fear’ for a book fair in Leipzig (to be read there in March 2002) and a discussion paper for the seminar on witness prose, organised by the Swedish Nobel Academy.