Aleksandar Hemon ( sr-Cyrl, Александар Xeмoн; born September 9, 1964) is a Bosnian-

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

author, essayist, critic, television writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels '' Nowhere Man'' (2002) and '' The Lazarus Project'' (2008), and his scriptwriting as a co-writer of '' The Matrix Resurrections'' (2021). He frequently publishes in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and has also written for ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'', ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phi ...

'', the Op-Ed page of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and the Sarajevo magazine ''

BH Dani BH, Bh or bh may refer to: Medicine * Bernard-Horner syndrome, a combination of symptoms that arises when a group of nerves known as the sympathetic trunk is damaged * Borderline hypertensive, an American medical classification for cases wher ...

''.

Early life

Hemon was born in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...

, then

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

, to a father of partial

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

descent and a

Bosnian Serb The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...

mother. Hemon's great-grandfather, Teodor Hemon, came to Bosnia from Western

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

prior to World War I, when both countries were a part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

Biography

Hemon graduated from the University of Sarajevo and was a published writer in

former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

by the time he was 26. Since 1992 he has lived in the United States, where he found himself as a tourist and became stranded at the outbreak of the war in Bosnia. In the U.S. he worked as a

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

canvasser, sandwich assembly-line worker, bike messenger, graduate student in English literature, bookstore salesperson, and ESL teacher. He earned his master's degree from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in 1996. He is the winner of a MacArthur Foundation grant. He published his first story in English, "The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders" in '' Triquarterly'' in 1995, followed by "The Sorge Spy Ring," also in ''Triquarterly'' in 1996, "A Coin" in ''

Chicago Review ''Chicago Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1946 and published quarterly in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. The magazine features contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism, often publishing works in translation and ...

'' in 1997, "Islands" in ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

'' in 1998, and eventually "Blind Jozef Pronek" in

in 1999. His work also eventually appeared in ''

'', ''

'', '' Best American Short Stories,'' and elsewhere. Hemon also has a bi-weekly column, written and published in Bosnian, called "Hemonwood" in the

-based magazine, ''

'' (''BH Days''). Hemon is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University, where he lives with his second wife, Teri Boyd, and their daughters Ella and Esther. The couple's second child, 1-year-old daughter Isabel, died of complications associated with a brain tumor in November 2010. Hemon published an essay, "The Aquarium," about Isabel's death in the June 13/20, 2011 issue of ''

''. Hemon grew up near the Grbavica Stadium, and he is a supporter of the ''Željo'', as the Sarajevo based football club FK Željezničar is affectionately called, with a membership.

Works

In 2000 Hemon published his first book, ''The Question of Bruno'', which included short stories and a novella. His second book, '' Nowhere Man'', followed in 2002. Variously referred to as a novel and as a collection of linked stories, ''Nowhere Man'' concerns Jozef Pronek, a character who earlier appeared in one of the stories in ''The Question of Bruno''. It was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award. In June 2006, ''"Exchange of Pleasant Words" and "A Coin"'' was published by Picador. On 1 May 2008, Hemon released '' The Lazarus Project'', inspired by the story of Lazarus Averbuch, which featured photographs by Hemon's childhood friend, photographer Velibor Božović. The novel was a finalist for the 2008

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

, the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named as a "New York Times Notable Book" and

New York magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...

's No. 1 Book of the Year. In May 2009, Hemon released a collection of stories, ''Love and Obstacles,'' which were largely written at the same time as he wrote ''The Lazarus Project.'' In 2011, Hemon was awarded the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award chosen by the judges Jill Ciment, Salvatore Scibona, and Gary Shteyngart. Hemon's first nonfiction book, '' The Book of My Lives,'' was released in 2013. Hemon's novel ''The Making of Zombie Wars'' was released in 2015. He published his second work of non-fiction, ''My Parents: An Introduction,'' in 2019. On August 20, 2019, it was announced that Hemon would co-write the script for '' The Matrix Resurrections'' alongside David Mitchell and

Lana Wachowski Lana Wachowski (born June 21, 1965, formerly known as Larry Wachowski) and Lilly Wachowski (born December 29, 1967, formerly known as Andy Wachowski) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans ...

. The film is scheduled to release on December 22, 2021.

Articles

In October 2019, Hemon joined many intellectuals in an international public outcry in response to the decision of the

Nobel Committee A Nobel Committee is a working body responsible for most of the work involved in selecting Nobel Prize laureates. There are five Nobel Committees, one for each Nobel Prize. Four of these committees (for prizes in physics, chemistry, physio ...

to award Peter Handke a

Nobel Prize in literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

earlier that month (citing Handke's support of the late

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...

and

Bosnian genocide denial Bosnian genocide denial is an act of denying that the systematic Bosnian genocide against the Bosniak Muslim population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as planned and perpetrated in line with official and academic narratives defined and expressed by ...

). Hemon wrote an opinion piece in ''

'', published in the October 15 issue, criticizing the Nobel committee for its decision.

TV and film

While in the United States, Aleksandar Hemon started working as a screenwriter, and collaborated with

(

the Wachowskis Lana Wachowski (born June 21, 1965, formerly known as Larry Wachowski) and Lilly Wachowski (born December 29, 1967, formerly known as Andy Wachowski) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans ...

) and David Mitchell as co-writer on the finale of the TV show '' Sense8'' and the film '' The Matrix Resurrections''.

Critical reception

As an accomplished fiction writer who learned English as an adult, Hemon has some similarities to

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...

, which he acknowledges through

allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...

in ''The Question of Bruno'', though he is most frequently compared to

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

. All of his stories deal in some way with the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...

, or Chicago, but they vary substantially in genre.

Awards

*2017

PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of lite ...

Jean Stein Grant For Literary Oral History, for ''How Did You Get Here?: Tales of Displacement'' *2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography) shortlist for ''The Book of My Lives'' *2012 United States Artists Fellow Award. *2012

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

for Essay and Criticism, for "The Aquarium" *2011 PEN/W.G. Sebald Award *2011

Premio Gregor von Rezzori The Premio Gregor von Rezzori (Gregor von Rezzori Award) is a literary prize awarded at the annual Festival degli Scrittori in Florence. The award was established in 2007 in honor of Gregor von Rezzori, a Mitteleuropean writer, author of novels an ...

for foreign fiction translated into Italian for ''The Lazarus Project'' (''Il Progetto Lazarus''), translated by Maurizia Balmelli (Einaudi) *2009

for Fiction, for ''

'' *2009 St. Francis College Literary Prize *2008

, finalist, for ''The Lazarus Project'' *2008 National Book Critics Circle Award, finalist, for ''The Lazarus Project'' *2004

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

from the MacArthur Foundation *2003

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

*2003 National Book Critics Circle Award, finalist, for ''Nowhere Man'' *2001 John C. Zacharis First Book Award, for ''The Question of Bruno''

Bibliography

;Short fiction *"The Liar," collected in ''

The Book of Other People ''The Book of Other People'' is a collection of short stories, published in 2008 by Penguin Books. Selected and edited by Zadie Smith, it contains 23 short stories by 23 different authors, among them Nick Hornby, David Mitchell, Colm Tóibín, ...

'' ( Zadie Smith, editor) *"The Conductor," collected in ''

The Best American Short Stories 2006 ''The Best American Short Stories 2006'', a volume in ''The Best American Short Stories series'', was edited by Katrina Kenison and by guest editor Ann Patchett.Review, Booklist, October 15, 2006 This edition is notable in that it was the last ed ...

( Ann Patchett, editor); first published in ''

'', February 28, 2005 * * ;Articles * * ;Essays * 2014 "The Matters of Life, Death, and More: Writing on Soccer", * 2015 "My Prisoner", ;Novels *2002 '' Nowhere Man,'' , *2008 '' The Lazarus Project,'' , *2015 ''The Making of Zombie Wars'', , ;Short story collections *2000 ''The Question of Bruno,'' *2009 ''Love and Obstacles. Riverhead Books, .'' ;Nonfiction *2013 '' The Book of My Lives,'' *2019 ''My Parents: An Introduction / This Does Not Belong to You'', . ;Editor *2010 ''Best European Fiction 2010'' *2010 ''Best European Fiction 2011'' *2011 ''Best European Fiction 2012'' *2012 ''Best European Fiction 2013''

References

External links

Official website

Riverhead Books Riverhead Books is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) founded in 1994 by Susan Petersen Kennedy. Writers published by Riverhead include Ali Sethi, Marlon James, Junot Díaz, George Saunders, Khaled Hosseini, Nick Hornby, Anne Lamott, Carlo ...

* Hemon, Aleksandar
"The Noble Truths of Suffering"
National Magazine Award-winning '' New Yorker'' story * Hemon, Aleksanda
"Genocide’s Epic Hero"
''New York Times'' Op-Ed on Radovan Karadžić * Hemon, Aleksanda
'The Bob Dylan of genocide apologists'
''New York Times'' Op-Ed on Peter Handke * Hemon, Aleksanda
"Rationed"
* Hemon, Aleksande
''The Tenants'': An Introduction
– Hemon provided the Introduction to the 2003 reissue of

Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...

's 1971 novel The Tenants.
Portrait
by Graphic Journalism]
"National Subjects"
in Guernica, January 2012
2008 ''Bomb Magazine'' interview of Aleksandar Hemon by Deborah Baker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemon, Aleksandar 1964 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American columnists American male novelists Bosnia and Herzegovina emigrants to the United States Bosnia and Herzegovina novelists Bosnia and Herzegovina short story writers Exophonic writers MacArthur Fellows Writers from Sarajevo University of Sarajevo alumni Northwestern University alumni Northwestern University faculty Writers from Chicago St. Francis College Literary Prize American male short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Illinois 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Ukrainian descent