- Born:
- September 9, 1964, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia [now in Bosnia and Herzegovina] (age 62)
Aleksandar Hemon
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Who is Aleksandar Hemon?
Aleksandar Hemon, born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on September 9, 1964, is a Bosnian American writer known for his exploration of exile, identity, and home in his short stories and novels. He draws from his own experiences as an immigrant, Hemon's family background includes his father, an engineer, and his mother, an accountant. He graduated with a literature degree from the University of Sarajevo in 1990 and worked as a journalist. In 1992, he came to Chicago for a journalist exchange program, but war in Bosnia led him to seek political refugee status in the United States.
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Where was Aleksandar Hemon born and where does he live now?
Aleksandar Hemon was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now in Bosnia and Herzegovina), on September 9, 1964. In 1992, Hemon participated in a journalist exchange program in Chicago. When war broke out in his home country, he applied for and was granted status as a political refugee in the United States. He became an American citizen in 2000. Hemon's experiences as an immigrant in Chicago heavily influenced his work.
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What type of books or stories does Aleksandar Hemon write?
Aleksandar Hemon is a Bosnian American author known for his short stories and novels that explore themes of exile, identity, and home. Much of his work is informed by his own experiences as an immigrant in Chicago.
His notable works include The Question of Bruno (2000), a collection of short stories, and Nowhere Man: The Pronek Fantasies (2002), which tells the story of a young man from Sarajevo navigating a new life in Chicago. The Lazarus Project (2008) intertwines the stories of two Eastern European immigrants in Chicago. Hemon followed this with Love and Obstacles (2009), a collection of short stories. In addition to fiction, Hemon has also written memoirs, including The Book of My Lives (2013) and My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You (2019).
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How did Aleksandar Hemon's life change because of the Bosnian War?
The Bosnian War significantly altered Aleksandar Hemon's life. In 1992, while in Chicago for a journalism exchange program, war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, preventing his return home. As a result, Hemon applied for and received political refugee status in the United States.
Hemon, who had graduated with a literature degree from the University of Sarajevo in 1990, began working various jobs in Chicago, such as a bike messenger, while improving his English and pursuing a graduate degree at Northwestern University. His experiences as an immigrant in Chicago heavily influenced his writing, with themes of exile, identity, and home becoming central to his short stories and novels.
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What are some awards or honors that Aleksandar Hemon has received?
Aleksandar Hemon, a Bosnian American author, is known for exploring themes of exile, identity, and home in his works. His notable achievements include receiving a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 2004. Hemon garnered critical acclaim as a finalist for a National Book Award for The Lazarus Project (2008). His work often draws from his own experiences as an immigrant in Chicago, showcased in collections like The Question of Bruno (2000) and novels like Nowhere Man: The Pronek Fantasies (2002).
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How does Hemon's writing explore themes like immigration and identity?
Aleksandar Hemon, a Bosnian American author, explores themes of exile, identity, and home in his works through characters mirroring his own immigrant experience. His stories often depict characters navigating new lives in Chicago while dealing with minimum-wage jobs, as seen in Nowhere Man: The Pronek Fantasies. Hemon's novel, The Lazarus Project, intertwines stories of eastern European immigrants in Chicago. Similarly, Love and Obstacles is a collection of stories about a young man who leaves Sarajevo for the United States when war breaks out in his home country. Hemon's writing is recognized for its inventive use of the English language.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Aleksandar Hemon (born September 9, 1964, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia [now in Bosnia and Herzegovina]) is a Bosnian American writer known for his short stories and novels that explore issues of exile, identity, and home through characters drawn from Hemon’s own experience as an immigrant.
Hemon was raised in Sarajevo, where his father was an engineer and his mother was an accountant. After graduating from the University of Sarajevo with a degree in literature in 1990, he worked as a journalist with the Sarajevan youth press. In 1992 he participated in a journalist exchange program that took him to Chicago. Hemon intended to stay in the United States only briefly, for the duration of the program, but, when war broke out in his home country, he applied for and was granted status as a political refugee in the United States.
In Chicago Hemon worked a series of jobs, including as a bike messenger and a door-to-door canvasser, while improving his knowledge of English and pursuing a graduate degree at Northwestern University. Three years after arriving in the United States, he wrote his first short story in English, “The Sorge Spy Ring.” Together with several other short stories and the novella “Blind Jozef Pronek & Dead Souls,” it was published in the collection The Question of Bruno in 2000, the same year Hemon became an American citizen. Like much of Hemon’s published work, these stories were largely informed by Hemon’s own immigrant experience in Chicago. Hemon brought back Jozef Pronek, the protagonist from his earlier novella, with Nowhere Man: The Pronek Fantasies (2002), the story of a young man growing up in Sarajevo who later attempts to navigate a new life in Chicago while working minimum-wage jobs. The book, like the rest of Hemon’s work, was notable for the author’s inventive use of the English language. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2004.
The Lazarus Project (2008) intertwined two stories of eastern European immigrants to Chicago. Vladimir Brik, a Bosnian immigrant writer and the novel’s narrator, becomes obsessed with a murder case from nearly a century earlier in which Lazarus Averbuch, a young Russian Jew, was shot and killed by Chicago’s police chief. Hemon received much critical acclaim for the novel, which was a finalist for a National Book Award. He followed this with Love and Obstacles (2009), a collection of short stories narrated by a young man who leaves Sarajevo for the United States when war breaks out in his home country. The Making of Zombie Wars (2015) chronicles the quotidian difficulties of a workaday writer attempting to finish a screenplay about a zombie invasion.
Hemon also cowrote the screenplay for The Matrix Resurrections (2021), the fourth installment in the popular sci-fi Matrix series. His other works included the memoirs The Book of My Lives (2013) and My Parents: An Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You (2019). The latter book consists of two volumes.