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Aleksandar Hemon
Instructor
Phone: 610-606-4666

Partial list of publications: The Lazarus Project, The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man, Love and Obstacles
Genres: Fiction and nonfiction
Awards: Recipient of many awards and prizes, including the 2008 National Book Award.
Current residence: Chicago

Education

PhD in English Literature at Loyola University, Chicago
MA in English Literature, Northwestern University
BA in General Literature, University of Sarajevo

About

Acclaimed fiction writer Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also written three collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno,Nowhere Man (also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Love and Obstacles. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for a matter of months. During Hemon’s visit, Sarajevo came under siege, and the writer was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in 1995. His books have been published in over 20 countries around the world. Hemon was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. He lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter.

Teaching Experience

  • Winter 2010, Columbia College, Chicago, Writer-in-Residence
  • Teaches regularly at Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies
  • Fall 2004, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Visiting Professor of Creative Writing
  • Winter 2002, Northwestern University, courses in Creative Writing and 20th Century Fiction
  • Summer 1999, Loyola University, course in Modernist Poetry

Awards & Honors

  • 2009 Award for Adult Fiction for The Lazarus Project from The Society of Midland Authors
  • The Lazarus Project was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and NBCC Award for fiction.
  • The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize, 2008
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, 2004
  • John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, 2003
  • Nowhere Man, 2002, shortlisted for National Book Critics Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Award
  • 2002 Award for Adult Fiction for Nowhere Man from The Society of Midland Authors
  • Chicago Public Library Foundation 21st Century Award, 2000
  • Illinois Literary Award 1997, 1998
  • The radio play based on “The Life and Work of Alphonse Kauders” won Premios Ondas at the radio festival in Barcelona, Spain 1990.

Publications

Novels

  • The Lazarus Project (Riverhead), published in 2008

Short Story Collections

  • The Question of Bruno (Nan A. Tales/Doubleday, 2000) (www.questionofbruno.com)
  • Nowhere Man (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, September 2002) received critical acclaim and was shortlisted for National Book Critics Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Award (visit www.aleksandarhemon.com)
  • Love and Obstacles (Riverhead), 2009

Short Fiction

  • Numerous stories and poems published all around the former Yugoslavia
  • Published fiction in The New Yorker, Esquire, Granta, McSweeney’s, TriQuarterly, Chicago Review, Ploughshares, The Baffler, Tin House, The Paris Review, and others.
  • “The Life and Work of Alphonse” (which with additional notes appears in The Question of Bruno) appeared in the anthology The Best Yugoslav Short Stories 1990, edited by David Albahari and Mihajlo Pantic
  • Various short stories included in Best American Short Stories 1999, 2000; 2006

Book Reviews and Magazine Articles

  • Book reviews and various articles for the Chicago Tribune, the Village Voice, the Wall Street Journal, Playboy, the New Yorker, the New York Times, MSN Slate on-line magazine, and other publications.
  • The regular biweekly column Hemonwood, in Bosnian, for the Sarajevo magazine BH Dani
  • Worked and wrote for Radio-Sarajevo Youth Program and the magazines Valter and Naši Dani, and freelanced for other Sarajevo media

Editing Experience

Edited Best European Fiction, 2010 and 2011 editions (The Dalkey Archive Press).