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A note about the artwork
Samira Kentrić
All artwork in this issue is
taken from the new graphic
novel
Balkanalia
, by Samira
Kentrić, published in
Slovenian this year by
Beletrina Academic Press.
A self-styled “opinion illustrator”, Samira has illustrated
many books of humanist thinkers, and visualized
international news, including on themes of EU integration,
religious disputes and social struggles. She is also an
international performer and intellectually provocative
visual artist.
Balkanalia
is her first book – not yet available in English –
an autobiographical coming-of-age graphic novel told in
pictures and words, tracing family and childhood, from
Soviet Socialism up through the break-up of Yugoslavia, the
rise of nationalisms and beyond. As she says:
“The words of a migrant child make it obvious that she
always knew that she belonged nowhere. But she did
belong to people, ideas and ideals. So home could be