On Monday, October 25, a workshop about the use of the cataloguing software ZaKi was held at the Little Island Library in Babino Polje on Mljet. The Little Island Library is an initiative started by a group of locals with the goal of finally having a public library on Mljet, which officially got the support of Mljet Municipality this year, so the residents of Mljet can now visit the library to borrow various fiction and nonfiction titles. As the leader of the literary residency programme “Ulysses’ Shelter”, which has been held at Kulijer on Mljet since 2018 with the support of the public institution Mljet National Park, Sandorf has, in agreement with the head librarian Anamarija Levak, started a collection of poetry books in a number of languages called “International Library of Poetry”. On this occasion, Sandorf has donated poetry books in Slovenian, sent over by the friendly Slovene Writers’ Association, a “Ulysses’ Shelter” project partner. The workshop was run by retired librarian Jablanka Sršen, and interested residents of Babino Polje participated as well.
After the workshop, the audience moved to the cafe “Komarac”, a popular place for social gatherings in Babino Polje, where October’s “Ulysses’ Shelter” literary residency guest, poet, writer and translator Maja Ručević, presented her work. In the warm atmosphere of “Komarac”, Maja Ručević shared her experience staying at the literary residency on Mljet, thrilled by the amount of writing inspiration the island, and especially Kulijer where the residency is located, offered. Those who gathered agreed that events like this are indeed necessary for the island’s cultural life, and Maja Ručević has promised to return to Mljet as soon as she can.
Maja Ručević was born in 1983 in Zagreb, where she graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences with majors in Croatian and French Language and Literature. In recent years, she lives and works in Sarajevo as a journalist and translator, and writes prose and poetry for which she has received two awards. Her novel 'Je suis Jednoruki’, published by Algoritam, has made it to three semi-finals — T-portal’s novel of the year award, the 'Janko Polić Kamov’ award for best literary work written in the Croatian language, and the 'Fric' award for best non-translated book of fictional prose.