2022 has seen the return of war in Europe, a grim reality few thought would ever be faced in a new century. Join authors Lana Bastašić and Priscilla Morris in an essential conversation as they explore the chaos of war and the heartbreak of loss through the lived experiences of their female protagonists in Bastašić’s Catch the Rabbit and Morris’s Black Butterflies. These women and the characters they have created share more than a common heritage. Marking the 30th anniversary of the Siege of Sarajevo, their fictional narratives, set during and after the war in Bosnia, pierce the heart of a truth that must be told again and again, by new voices in each new generation. 

The daughter of a Yugoslav mother, Priscilla Morris grew up in her father’s native England, spending long summers in a pre-war Sarajevo. Black Butterflies is her debut novel.

Lana Bastašić is the Yugoslav-born writer of two short story collections, who lives and works in Belgrade. She is also a poet and the winner of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2020.

The event will be moderated by writer and journalist Caelainn Hogan.

‘Black Butterflies distils into a single consciousness a nation’s violent trauma and an artist’se sense of hope’ Sam Byers

‘Lana Bastašic’s novel of two young women plunging into post-war Bosnia like two Alices into Wonderland is smart, energetic, passionate, announcing a major talent’ Aleksandar Hemon