Author: Hana Tiro
"Kosmičke šetnje tastaturom" is your poetic debut. How long have you been writing, ie. from which of the writing periods were your poems included in the collection?
Bajrovic: The collection took a long time to create, but at the beginning I did not intend to write poems to fit into a book, they were more the way I expressed some thoughts that tormented me and occupied my thoughts. It wasn’t until later that I got the idea for a poetry collection when material piled up. Mostly a good part of the collection, at least seventy percent of the songs have been created in the last year and a half. One or two poems are from my early stage of writing poetry, 3-4 years ago. For example, the song "The Last Tram" is the oldest in this selection. Classes are for one regional competition for World Poetry Day, which took fourth place. On the other hand, I wrote the song "Why I Write" maybe a week before the book went to press. All the songs were written during the so-called 'transition period' after graduating from college and finding a job. During a period of numerous rejections, numerous obstacles, work on oneself, loneliness, fight against depression and anxiety, which is why poetry used to be the only way to endure it all.
Your poems enter the surreal realms, borders between dreams and reality. Is that how you see objects in your reality, or is that the way you interpret the world?
Bajrovic: I'm a classic overthinker. When I think about something, it sometimes exceeds all limits of reality and possibilities. But that's the way life is, isn't it? We want to turn dreams into reality, and reality sometimes seems like a dream, even if it was a nightmare. Poetry has this power to bridge the gap between dream and reality. It has the power to talk about something that is cosmic, surreal, unreal, and yet to be private, individual, inherent, worldly.
On the other hand, my writing is greatly influenced by science and nature (especially physics, astronomy and similar sciences), and everything related to them encourages man to romantic fantasies, ecstasy, fear and passion, which I write about - relationship between man and nature, man and cosmos, micro and macrocosm, reality and dream, and so on. What do I know, I seek my peace in a truly turbulent world.
If you were writing about any other city, what city would it be?
Bajrovic: It could be any city, if I got the chance to feel it, experience it, breathe it. Sarajevo (buildings, people, mentality, etc.) is the place of action and the lyrical subject of many of my works because I have been anchored there since birth. But I like to write about other locations as well. I research them more precisely by writing about them. I am currently working on a manuscript in which the main character, originally from BiH, resides in Boston. And in that manuscript, together with him, I discover and learn about the city - its culture, history, architecture, mentality. I like that Boston has a lot in common with English culture which is also very interesting to me, apart from its literary classics.
Where do you write?
Bajrovic: In my room, on my PC. If a neighbor drills, then I write about him with headphones on my head.
You also founded a web site, can you tell us a bit more about it?
Bajrovic: I started E-volucija with my brother out of some revolt, dissatisfaction, disappointment. These emotions were caused by several bad experiences with a couple of Sarajevo portals and organizations that swore to advocate for culture and young artists, and then did nothing. No culture, no youth, just politics and other accompanying activities. So we decided to launch a portal that will focus on the things we grew up on. Without politics and similar things that kill all happiness in people. At E-volucija, we write about things that have greatly shaped our childhood and lives, about the popular culture that made up the lives of children during the ’80s, ’90s and '00s. These include video games, contemporary science, comics, computers, science fiction, movies in general, and literature. On the other hand, we try to write as much as possible about the artistic or technological creations of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the creators. Sometimes it is difficult to publish everything timely, because we work with limited capacities, without finances and so on, but we do our best. During 2020, we had two projects that we implemented only with helping hand that came to the rescue. The first was the Poetry Against the Corona, project that took place during the first lockdown. Then we published the poetry of young poets from BiH. The second project was a solo exhibition by the artist Lana Miličić, which was inspired by self-isolation, and had a paper and digital edition.
Do you have plans to move further with e-evolution?
Bajrovic: Both my brother and I have a few ideas of what we would like to do with E-evolution. These ideas are worked out, shaped, cooked. As I recently got a job on another portal, it slowed down a bit, but we won’t stop. We have a goal that we want to achieve and we will do our best to achieve it. Maybe as early as 2022.
Which literary genre do you enjoy the most?
Bajrovic: I enjoy everything, really. Although sometimes I criticize some things more than others, I am a true film lover and book lover. And even when it comes to bad ones. I am always guided by one sentence that I heard while I was still studying: "Sometimes you have to read a bad book, just enough to see how serious and difficult work writing is."
Lately, though, I have to admit, I enjoy books that belong to the new weird genre the most. It’s a subgenre of science fiction as they rank it in the world, but it’s not just that. Although it is most often present in works of science fiction, it can also be found in many other works of fiction. Moreover, the roots of the genre can also be found in Kafka, but more on that some other time. If anyone wants to discover something more I would recommend the novels of Jeff Vandermeer and China Mieville.
Are you currently working on new manuscript?
Bajrovic: I have one ready, I am bringing the other to an end and preparing the ground for the third. It’s not a trilogy, it’s all different stories and themes. Writing is what I do, what I want and what I will do forever. We will see if any of this will be published, either digitally or in print.
Follow Bajrovic on his Instagram account.
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