Aleksandar Hemon: Language, Exile, & The Many Forms of Artistic Expression

Aleksandar Hemon is a Bosnian-American author, essayist, critic, television writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels, Nowhere Man and The Lazarus Project, and his scriptwriting as co-writer of The Matrix Resurrections. In this wide-ranging conversation about his life and work, Aleksandar will talk about language and exile, his love of football, and the power of music and storytelling. He will be joined in conversation by Elisabeth Jaquette, Executive Director at Words Without Borders.

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Note: This program will be hosted at the Foerster Student Service Center Auditorium at the Community College of Allegheny County (839 Ridge Ave SSC 360, Pittsburgh, PA 15212)

About Aleksandar Hemon:

Aleksandar Hemon was born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has lived in the US since 1992. He has worked as a writer for the Radio Sarajevo Youth Program, and then as a waiter, canvasser, bookseller, bike messenger, a supervisor at a literacy center, and a teacher of English as a second language (all in Chicago). His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Esquire, Granta, The New York Times, Playboy, McSweeney’s, TriQuarterly, The Baffler, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, Ploughshares, The Guardian, and The Paris Review, among others. He’s written for film and television, most recently The Matrix Resurrections. He produces music and DJs under the name Cielo Hemon. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, the PEN/ W.G. Sebald Award, a USA Fellowship, PEN/Jean Stein Oral History Grant, and others. He has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champagne, Columbia College Chicago, the University of Chicago, and New York University. Now settled, he teaches at Princeton University. 

About the Moderator:

Elisabeth Jaquette is a translator from Arabic and the Executive Director of Words Without Borders. Her translation of Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (New Directions) was a finalist for the National Book Awards and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Her other translations include Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun (Comma Press), The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous (Knopf), and The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz (Melville House). Elisabeth’s work has also been published in the New York Times, McSweeney’s, The Common, Index on Censorship, and other places. Formerly, she was Executive Director at the American Literary Translators Association.

About Words Without Borders:

Now in its twenty-first year, Words Without Borders is the premier destination for a global literary conversation. Our mission is to cultivate global awareness by expanding access to international writing and creating a bridge between readers, writers, and translators. Our digital magazine offers unparalleled access to the world’s literary voices, and our education program, WWB Campus, brings global literature into hundreds of classrooms worldwide. Every year, WWB organizes free events with international authors, translators, and critics, providing a space for readers to engage directly with the perspectives we publish.