Denis Ćosić
- Croatia -
Denis Ćosić was born in 1996 in Karlsruhe. He is holding a BA in Economics of Hotel Management and is about to become a professional specialist in Human Resources Management. Till this date he has published three poetry books: Neonski bog mržnje (Neon god of hate, 2019), Crveno prije sutona (Red before dusk, 2019) and Košute su plakale bez rogova (The does wept without horns, 2021). For the manuscript of Neonski bog mržnje he won an award at „Drenovci competition“ in 2018 and for the manuscript of Crveno prije sutona he won „Goran for Young Poets“ award in 2019. The first-mentioned book he also won an award at „Days of Josip and Ivan Kozarac“. His last book was awarded “Kvirin” award for the best book by an author younger than 35. His poems appeared in various anthologies, collections, magazines and web-portals in Croatia and the ex-Yu region and are translated into English, French, Macedonian and Slovenian. Denis divides his time between Croatian cities of Požega, Zagreb and Dubrovnik.
Denis Ćosić is a Croatian poet born in Karlsruhe (Germany) in 1996. He is holding a Bachelor's degree in Economics of Hotel Management and will soon become a professional specialist in Human Resources Management.
He has published three poetry books so far: Neonski bog mržnje (Neon god of hate, 2019), Crveno prije sutona (Red before dusk, 2019) and Košute su plakale bez rogova (The does wept without horns, 2021)
Ćosić debuted with two poetry books simultaneously. For the manuscript of Neonski bog mržnje (Neon god of hate) he won an award at „Drenovci competition“ in 2018 and for the manuscript of Crveno prije sutona (Red before dusk) he won „Goran for Young Poets“ award in 2019. Both collections appeared in print in 2019. For the fore-mentioned book he also won an award at „Days of Josip and Ivan Kozarac“. His third book was again awarded, this time with “Kvirin” award, for the best poetry book by an author younger than 35. His poems appeared in anthologies, collections, magazines and web-portals in Croatia and the ex-Yugoslav region, as well as translated into English, French, Macedonian and Slovenian.
Denis’s works are explicitly homoerotic, ecologically sensitive and feminist, stylistically leaning on the various avant-garde and neo avant-garde poetics, mostly expressionism and surrealism. He is among rare poets in Croatia – including the most important award for the young poets in Croatia – repeatedly accolated for poetry books that openly thematize male homosexuality.
He divides his time between Croatian cities of Požega, Zagreb and Dubrovnik and tries to travel around Europe as much as possible.
The critics have recognized and mostly favorable rated his books from the very beginning. The editor of the first of his two debuts, Franjo Nagulov, underlines that “Neon god of hate, Denis Ćosić's poetic debut, is an extraordinary aesthetic success and, consequently, a significant moment of the domestic poetic year of 2019”. The editorial blurb was supported by the critical verification, from the side of the young critic Anita Pajević, writing that “undoubtedly, these are organic texts that follow very well the author's private preoccupations, from symbolic, oneiric, homoerotic, androgynous, mythological and mystical to psychological, biological and cultural-anthropological interests.”
It is quite common for the young Croatian poets to emerge after winning “Goran for Young Poets”, the most significant poetry prize in the country, awarded by Goranovo proljeće poetry festival since 1977. Evelina Rudan, herself accolated poet and university teacher and one of the award judges, sheds additional light on the poet’s second debut, describing it as “a world that no longer has or does not yet have clear boundaries, clear definitions, a world of twilights, eclipses, sunsets and sunrises that have not yet invoked their appointment. A world that has forgotten that it once was or has not yet thought it could eventually emerge. In such a world, strong visual images in strong metaphorical connections are, in fact, the best reflection because civilization begins with sound, society begins with speech, and culture begins with naming. But the state that the lyrical narrator mediates for us is the state of the disintegration of something that once was, the state of mixing, the state of the impotence of differentiation and the state of the muted impotence of the lyrical subject himself.”
Author’s most recent book is his first one fully written in verse. The first two were either fully dedicated to prose poems, or hybrid in form. It is a book-length narrative poem embedded in a strong symbolical grid, resuming already known Ćosić’s interests and focal topics, but also introducing new ones. The editor of the book, Kruno Lokotar is stating that „from a series of mostly Jungian motifs, Denis Ćosić has woven a thick braid, a spiral that leads this long poem into the infinitely dark humane, into the depths of the collective soul, the mythical unconscious.“ The critic had backed it up with, in the words of Luka Rovčanić, the claim that: “Poetry book The does wept without horns demonstrates a much more open discourse and interest in socio-political anomalies that in the modern world tend to go unnoticed and without major consequences, bringing to the surface the things that are often kept secret. The author spoke boldly not only about the patriarchal system that stifles women's freedom, but also about the problems of identification and efforts to discipline different naming policies. In many ways, therefore, a provocative, successful book worth reading and thinking about.”
Having read the three collections published by the author to this date, one gets an impression of the elaborated vision and the direction of the lyrical path taken, in both themes and style. To turn to the critics again, and conclude with the words of Irena Matiješević: “His youth is in a way an important factor in judging his poetry, because such a radical revolt, and especially disturbing images, are a common feature of young and avant-garde poetics, but may remain a lasting feature of this great poet … ”
Poetry
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Virginia / Virginia
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Probiosis / Probioza
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The Well / Bunar
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Gloamer / Sumračnjak
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Flowery and Fruity / Voćan i cvjetan
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My Walls Have Seen a Massacre of Mosquitoes / Moji su zidovi vidjeli masakr komaraca
