THE BALKAN WRITERS PROJECT
THE BALKAN WRITERS PROJECT - is a regional EFL organization I founded and directed from 2015-2016. It's mission is to promote English through creative arts and post conflict peace-building through cross-border exchanges between young literary artists in former Yugoslavia. At its core the Balkan Writers Project is a team of talented young writers, EFL enthusiasts, and citizen diplomats dedicated to fostering global mindedness and multicultural awareness through the English language.
During the 2015-2016 the Balkan Writers Project launched two large-scale literary arts projects (Belgrade Poetography and Before I Die - Belgrade) which included over a thousand participants from around the region.
With the fiancial support of the US State Department the Balkan Writers Project produced and published multiple volumes of EFL creative writing and organized public readings and literary arts events in countries throughout Southeastern Europe.
A core feature of the Balkan Writers Project's mission is to use English to promote post conflict peace-building through cross-border exchanges between young literary artists in former Yugoslavia. They helped coordinate and took on roles as citizen diplomats in two such exchanges in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. These exchanges involved presenting at conferences, hosting cultural activities, and guiding workshops with young English students of different ethnicities and religions from across the Western Balkans.
From 2015-2016 the Balkan Writers Project establish a network of EFL writers from five post-conflict countries which connected hundreds of writers from across the region. This unique EFL organization published four anthologies of creative writing and built four major literary arts events involving over a thousand members of the community. Their post-conflict peace initiatives included two cultural exchanges with English students in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as collaborative projects with partners in Croatia, Bulgaria and Poland. For all these endeavors they have been supported by the US State Department's English Language Programs and US embassies. Today this talented team continues to use English to build bridges and inspire community pride throughout the Balkans and beyond.