Marko Tomaš (born 19 December 1978) is a Bosnian poet, essayist, and journalist.

Biography

He attended

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina Mostar () is a city and the administrative centre of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the historical capital of Herzegovina. Mostar is situated on the Neretva Riv ...

, and

Kljajićevo Kljajićevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Кљајићево) is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Sombor municipality, in the West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbered 6,012 people ...

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

, Serbia. He then finished

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Sombor Sombor ( sr-Cyrl, Сомбор, ; ; ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the West Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The city has a total population of 41,814 (), while its adminis ...

. Returning to Mostar, he enrolled in full-time

law studies Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

and the study of

Bosnian language Bosnian (; / ; ), sometimes referred to as Bosniak ( / ; ), is the standard language, standardized Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language mainly used by ethnic Bosniaks. Bosnian is one of ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. After two years, he interrupted his studies and, along with his friends, founded the ''Alternative Institute'', an association dedicated to multimedia art projects. He also founded the literature magazine ''Kolaps'' and the publishing house ''Kolaps Book Production'', where he served as editor. He ran the cult Split bookstore UTOPIA. From 2001 to 2003, he resided in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

temporarily. He often changed his place of residence, so he also lived in Sarajevo,

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

and many other cities throughout the former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. He currently lives in Mostar, where he serves as the spokesman and leader of the '' OKC Abrašević'' club. In 2017, he signed the

Declaration on the Common Language The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku, Декларација о заједничком језику, separator=" / ") was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and He ...

of the

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

Bosniaks The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

and

Montenegrins Montenegrins (, or ) are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common ancestry, culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Montenegrins are mostly Orthodox Christians; however, the population also includes ...

Literary work

He is one of the founding editors of the magazine and publishing house ''Kolaps''. He published poetry and prose in Bosnian and Herzegovinian, Croatian, and Serbian periodicals, as well as newspaper articles and essays in Dani,

Glas Istre ''Glas Istre'' () is a Croatian regional daily newspaper published in Pula which mainly covers stories of interest from the Istria region in the northwest of the country. Established in 1943 as a regional newsletter of the Yugoslav Partisans, the ...

, and Feral Tribune. He publishes diary entries, essays, and political and sports commentary on the online portals Žurnal.ba and Lupiga.com, as well as in the magazine Urban Magazin from Sarajevo. He won the '' Super Cyber Story Award'' for storytelling and the Farah Tahirbegović Award for his engagement in the culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Motifs and his writing style are described by his publisher as follows: ''"What distinguishes his work, regardless of the form and genre, is honesty. Constant life reconsideration, unpretentiousness, strong emotions, various faces of love, melancholy, war, and the colors of everyday life - these are the characteristics of his poetry and prose. With his poetry, Marko lives a life outside the prescribed rules."'' Compared to early

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

, he is described as a ''"poet of rare sensuality and emotional refinement with a refined bohemian touch."'' He is one of the most successful and most popular contemporary poets from the Balkans. His poems have been translated into Italian, French, Polish, German, Slovenian, English and Albanian. His poem is included in one of the more recent theater productions of Dušan Kovačević's play '' Balkanski špijun'', performed at Raša Plaović, the stage of the National Theater in Belgrade. One of his most famous works is the poem ''Pismo Venjičk''i, inspired by the poem ''Moskva Petushki'' by the Russian writer

Venedikt Yerofeyev Venedikt Vasilyevich Yerofeyev, also Benedict Erofeev or Erofeyev (; 24 October 1938 in Niva-3 Human settlement, settlement, suburb of Kandalaksha – 11 May 1990 in Moscow) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident. Biography Yerofeyev was born ...

Bibliography

Some of Tomaš's works include: * "L'amore al primo binocolo" (sa M. Begićem, N. Ćišićem i V. Gatalom), 2000. * "Tri puta trideset i tri jednako" (s M. Begićem i N. Ćišićem) Mostar, 2001. * "S rukama pod glavom" Zagreb, 2002. * "Mama, ja sam uspješan" Zagreb, 2004. * "Život je šala" Zagreb, 2005. * "Marko Tomaš i druge pjesme" Zagreb-Sarajevo, 2007. * "Zbogom, fašisti" Sarajevo, 2009. * "Bulevar narodne revolucije" Zagreb, 2013. * "Varanje smrti - izabrane pesme" Beograd, 2014. * "Ivica Osim - utakmice života" Zenica-Beograd, 2014. * "Kolodvor i paranoja" Beograd, 2015. * "Odrastanje melankolije" Beograd, 2015. * "Crni molitvenik" Zagreb-Beograd, 2015. * "Regata papirnih brodova" Beograd, 2017. * "Trideset deveti maj" Beograd, 2018. Zagreb, 2019. * "Pisma s juga" (a book of essays and columns) Beograd, 2019. * "Pjesme sa granice" (trilogy composed of the last three collections of poems), Sarajevo, 2019. * "Želim postati terorist" (knjiga izabranih pesama) LJubljana, 2019. * "Nemoj me buditi" (prvi roman) Beograd, 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomas, Marko Bosnia and Herzegovina journalists Bosnia and Herzegovina poets People from Ljubljana 1978 births Bosnia and Herzegovina essayists Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language Living people