School – by Gloria Lujanović

Mostar Spring will host another literary program. It will feature Glorija Lujanović's latest book, the poem School, which will be presented at the Gallery of Queen Katarina Kosača on Wednesday, June 11, starting at 7 p.m. In addition to the author, the program will also feature Ivan Vukoja, Dragan Komadina, Anita Milićević, and Misijana Brkić-Milinković.
– Gloria Lujanović's School is a murderous text in many ways. It is murderous towards its own, deeply rooted source, it is murderous towards those to whom it is addressed, it is also murderous towards a third party, the reader, who at first deceives himself into reading it from a neutral position, from a safe distance, with permission for moralizing to some, and psychotherapy to the one who speaks. In this shocking collection of carefully filtered horror, from chapter to chapter, from poem to poem, we receive the blows of the author's voice which, without any retreat, perfectly devoid of defense mechanisms, testifies to collective violence without logic and reason, to the systematic injustice on which the educational system based on lies, on silence, on disciplining the victim and tolerating violent creativity rests. Reading this poem, we will travel from naive dreams of belonging, even if marginal, even if purchased, even if temporary, through disappointed expectations of justice and seductive fantasies of revenge and retaliatory violence, to finally find ourselves faced with the most difficult question of all – can there be liberation and forgiveness where there is no recognition of the crime. Let us not deceive ourselves, fellow readers, brothers and sisters, comrades, that this can be read from a neutral distance, dispassionately, soberly, with reservations. For Glorija Lujanović's writing is not just an act of remembrance, it is a search for meaning beyond the boundaries of the material world – where abuse is not seen only as personal pain, but as a metaphor for the human desire for transcendence. By reading this text, we become its part, object or
subject of abuse. And just when we think we can't go any further, a new level of the text will be revealed to us, as an allegory of liberation through autonomous creation of meaning and an invitation to everyone to contemplate their own role. And to take responsibility for it – writes Croatian writer Kristian Novak about the School.

A WORD OR TWO ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Gloria Lujanović (1993, Novi Travnik) is a writer and journalist. In 2023, she published the poem Otac (Father) in the OceanMore Publishing House. In the same year, in co-publishing with the Croatian National Theatre in Mostar, she published the book Srce zemlje (Heart of the Country) with the same publisher, for which she was awarded the “Fra Martin Nedić” literary award in Orašje as the best book in the Croatian language for 2024. Srce zemlje was shortlisted for the “Predrag Matvejević” award, which reflects the values of inclusiveness, open society, equality and true freedom of speech. She published the book Škola (School) in 2025, also in the OceanMore Publishing House. She lives and works in
Zagreb.