Nina Bunjevac (born 1973) is a

Serbian Canadian The community of Serbian Canadians ( sr, Канадски Срби/Kanadski Srbi) includes Canadian citizens of Serb ethnicity, or people born in Serbia who permanently reside in Canada. Serbs (and Serbians) have migrated to Canada in various wa ...

cartoonist.

Biography

Bunjevac was born in

Welland Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. As of 2021, it had a population of 55,750. The city is in the centre of Niagara and located within a half-hour driving distance to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on ...

, Ontario, Canada, in 1973 to Serbian immigrant parents from

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

. At age two her mother moved with her two daughters back to

Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...

in Yugoslavia to get away from her radical

Serbian nationalist Serbian nationalism asserts that Serbs are a nation and promotes the cultural and political unity of Serbs. It is an ethnic nationalism, originally arising in the context of the general rise of nationalism in the Balkans under Ottoman rule, und ...

husband Peter, who accidentally died in Toronto in 1977 while building a bomb with Rade Panić and Pavle Kljaić who were also killed when the bomb exploded. Bunjevac attended the Djordje Krstic School for Applied Arts. She returned to Toronto in 1990 where she attended the

Central Technical School Central Technical School (CTS or Central Tech) is a Canadian composite high school in Toronto, Ontario. The school is run by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB); before 1998, it was run by the Toronto Board of Education (TBE). Central Tech ...

and graduated from

OCAD Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

in 1997. She worked as a painter, illustrator, and art teacher before turning to comics in pen and ink. Her comics have appeared in a number of international comics publications. She won The Golden Pen of Belgrade at the 11th International Biennale of Illustration in Belgrade for her cover to the anthology ''Ženski strip na Balkanu'' ("Balkan Women in Comics"), which appeared in English in 2012 under the title ''Balkan Comics: Women on the Fringe''. Bunjevac's first collection of comics, ''Heartless'', appeared in 2012. It won a Doug Wright Spotlight Award at the 2013

Doug Wright Award The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning (established in December 2004) are literary awards handed out annually since 2005 during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to Canadian cartoonists honouring excellence in comics (including webcomics) ...

s. She followed with the memoir ''Fatherland'' in 2014, which won the 2015 Doug Wright Award for Best Book. Nina’s third book, ''Bezimena'', made the official selection at

Angoulême International Comics Festival The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after ...

2019, won Artemisia prize in the category of Best Drawing in France, and was awarded Best Book Jury Prize at 2019

Lucca Comics and Games Lucca Comics & Games is an annual comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with All Saints' Day. It is the largest comics festival in Europe, and the second biggest in the world a ...

in Lucca, Italy.

List of works

* ''Heartless'' (2012) * ''Fatherland'' (2014) *''Bezimena'' (2018)

References

Works cited

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bunjevac, Nina 1973 births Living people People from Welland Artists from Ontario Canadian women cartoonists Canadian graphic novelists Canadian female comics artists Canadian people of Serbian descent