Prvoslav Vujcic

Life

Vujcic was born on 20 July 1960 in Pozarevac to parents Jefrem (1932–1996) and Nadezda (1936). In 1975, Vujcic won the Zmaj Award (awarded annually by the Association of Writers of Serbia for the best book of the year) for his collection of poetry titled Pesnik i pesma – the award was presented to him by Desanka Maksimovic. In 1977, he visited Canada and the United States for the first time where he met one of his literary influences Charles Bukowski. Vujcic then read and presented his poetry with Bukowski on tour for fourteen days in 1977. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was the leader of the Pozarevac section of the Grobari, the supporters group of Partizan Belgrade. In 1983, Vujcic wrote a book of poetry titled Razmisljanja jednog lesa which was banned by the Communist government of Yugoslavia by court order in 1983. In 1984, Vujcic was in the Tuzla Prison for seven days (for his writing and criticizing of Yugoslavia's communist regime) where he wrote his second book of poetry titled Kastriranje vetra – also banned by the communist regime.

In 1987, Vujcic moved to Canada. Upon arrival in Canada, he helped raise funds for the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade and the Zivojin Misic Monument in Mionica. In April 1987, The Globe and Mail published a letter to the editor written by Vujcic which was his first published work in English. On 4 March 1989, Momcilo Dujic called Vujcic a "true Serb" and an "honourable young man." On 28 June 1989, Vujcic helped organize the 600th Anniversary Ceremony commemorating the Battle of Kosovo throughout Canada. The Canada Gazette wrote about Vujcic and his beginnings in Canada in a 1989 edition. In 1992, he founded the United Serbs FC soccer club for which he and Mike Stojanovic played (as a child, Vujcic played soccer in the youth categories of FK Zeleznicar Pozarevac). During this period, Vujcic was a contributor to Serbian magazine Pogledi. In 1999, he was one of the organizers of the Toronto-based demonstrations against the bombing of Serbia and Montenegro. In terms of the Serbian diaspora, the demonstrations lasted all 78 days only in Toronto.

Vujcic is a member of the Association of Writers of Serbia, the Royal Canadian Legion, the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Serbian Literary Society, the Association of Writers of Republika Srpska and the US-based International Association of Writers. In 2007, the International Association of Writers named him a Poetry Ambassador of the United States. He is also an honourable member of the Desanka Maksimovic Serbian Canadian Association. Vujcic is featured in the book Mozdana veza sa Srbijom, 100 dragulja srpskog rasejanja (Brain Connection with Serbia, 100 Jewels of the Serbian Diaspora) by Radivoje Petrovic, PhD. The book features the "one hundred most-known Serbs throughout the world-wide Serbian diaspora." He was also featured on the cover of the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Serbia book called U cast pisaca iz rasejanja / In honour of writers in the diaspora in which literary critics Miodrag Perisic and Cedomir Mirkovic said that “Vujcic is one of the most significant living Serbian poets and dissidents.”

Published books

Literary influences

His literary influences have been listed as Saint Justin Popovic, Jovan Ducic, Desanka Maksimovic, Branko Miljkovic, Dura Jaksic, Milutin Bojic, Samuel Beckett, W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Jerzy Kosinski, Hermann Hesse, Charles Bukowski and Henry Miller among others.