How was the book created and how long did you work on it?
The book, note by note, was created gradually from 2016 to 2021, when it was rounded into the final melody. "88" is poetic-prose music that echoed in me during those five years. Most of the lyrics were written in Andalusia, some in Sarajevo and some in Buenos Aires.
What is literature for you?
Art is full of dimensions of reality, the fullness and breadth of the world, and poetry is my space. Even when I try to write prose I live quite comfortably in poetry.
Do you have any literary role models?
My reading and artistic fascinations range from the artistic space of the Mediterranean, especially Spain, to Latin America, through oriental poets and philosophers. I read Borges and Pessoa over and over again, mostly.
What literary forms do you find most comfortable with?
I believe that contemporary literary texts should choose as short forms as possible. My complete expression is poetry and micro story. I think that the most complex reflections can be said in the most subtle way in just a few words. This can also be seen in the book "88".
Are you currently writing anything new?
I'm writing another melody that is similar to the book "88" but it questions new symbolic spaces and tries to break some new boundaries.
What does your writing process look like?
I am staying in Granada, Andalusia, walking through the streets, squares, looking from viewpoints, observing and collecting impressions, images, sounds, words, conversations, the music of street musicians, and writing down ideas in a notebook while sitting on stairs, benches, sidewalks, bridges, and banks.
Do you follow the domestic literary scene – and what do you mean by it?
I follow the poetry scene of the Balkans very thoroughly, I read less prose. Home for me is everything that is poetically close to me, every text that I can symbolically unlock and empathically accept as my own.
What are you reading right now?
I am currently re-studying Cortazar thoroughly and incorporating into my reading new impressions of his poetics that I learned while living in Argentina.
Choose one poem, by any poet.
Asmir Kujović - The Farthest Sky
If I look at the tiniest star
A billion light years away from earth,
I see her as she was.
A billion years ago.
If Adam stands in the farthest sky
And he looks at me through a telescope,
See me as I was.
While I was still with him, in Eden.