Author Archives
Erna Grcic is a writer, poet, teacher, and translator. She graduated summa cum laude and received two Golden Badges from the University of Sarajevo upon getting her MA in English Language and Literature. She synthesises her love of literature and teaching in her research in the field of literary theory and applied linguistics.
She is currently working on a poetry collection titled Beneath the Surface and writing a novel inspired by ancient Slavic mythology under the working title Zmeyograd.
A Word from the Author:
‘Literature is my work and my favourite pastime. My first literary experience had started almost thirty years ago, during a particularly bloody war, when in the basement of our heavily bombarded house, my mother read to me in the flickering light of a candle in order to pull me away from the roars and blasts that shook us every now and then and make me fall asleep. Since then, literature has become a safe haven, a source of peace and security in the midst of the everyday uproar.’ – Erna G.
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What is a Human Woman? – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
As Elizabethan literary theorist Sir Philip Sidney claims in his 16th century work titled The Defence of Poesie, the purpose of poetry, later extended to encompass all literary genres, is to simultaneously teach and delight the reader. Gail Honeyman’s debut… Read More ›
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The Forgetful Narrator: Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
The idea of a completely reliable narrator is quite a questionable subject, since we are all unreliable when it comes to telling our own stories, hence, as the term ‘omniscient’ suggests, the reliable narrator must be some kind of divine,… Read More ›
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The Addled Narrator: A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window
After I’d completed A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window, I put the book down in my lap, leaned back, and stared somewhere into the middle distance while my mind went through the events in the novel once again, weighing… Read More ›
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5-minute poem
tick-tock the hands roll spinning out of control pen stuck in a rut bleeding ink into a cut lecherous white face grins from the wall your shadow lengthens, heavy to haul bony fingers around your neck too late to scream,… Read More ›
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Bleak Day
I feel so bleak I hate being weak Under the weather Not holding the reins A cocktail of clichés The day is sunny But, isn’t it funny, I’m hoping for rain To wash the worries Down the drain. © 2018… Read More ›
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Ready Player One Movie: A Frolic Down the Memory Lane
It is a common occurrence that as soon as a book-based film gets released the critics start raving about how much better the book was. Yet we do seem to forget that books and films are two very different media… Read More ›
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Eine kleine Nachtmusik: Ishiguro’s Nocturnes
It is oft said that even the best of novelists hone their skills on short stories since they contain more or less the same elements as novels yet on a smaller scale. Kazuo Ishiguro’s charming collection titled Nocturnes: Five Stories… Read More ›
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Middle of Nowhere
Mosquitoes on the glass Peer at the breathing mass Rubbing their dainty hands Expecting a feast in the sands In the midst of these parched lands Palm trees and a patch of grass Everything else meant to pass The wind… Read More ›
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Merciless
Waiting on the roadside. What for? To be ticked off, Ground and minced, A pile of drying meat Left to rot and repel Everyone but hungry worms Obese, rolling heavily Yet famished, craving flesh. Is it worth the wait? Don’t… Read More ›
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Disintegrating
Dreams fall apart In my hands Seep through my fingers Into the cracks Through the floor And into the river Of tears and sweat Flowing down the canyons Of the aged face where Dead dreams rot and fester Un-lived, unrealised,… Read More ›
