Mišo Marić – friend of BH UK Network

BH UK Network awarded Milenko “Miš” Marić at an event marking the Statehood Day of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Birmingham.

Mišo Marić is a Bosnian poet, journalist, cultural worker and longtime associate and friend of BH UK NETWORK.

Thank you Miso for your selfless friendship!

Milenko Mišo Marić is a Bosnian and Herzegovinian poetic and journalistic legend. He was born on December 26, 1939 in Bosanski Petrovac. Mišo is a writer and poet with many published books, represented in many anthologies, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina but also throughout the former Yugoslavia, represented in textbooks and monographs. His poems have been translated into several languages. Many of his poems have been set to music and have become hits by famous musicians. He is a multiple winner of awards and letters of appreciation for his literary and journalistic work, and his poetry collections have been translated into several world languages. He has collaborated with many musical artists in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavia for whose songs he wrote lyrics. He is one of the cultural symbols of the city of Mostar, and the founder and artistic director of the children’s choir ensemble Mostarske kiše . Since 1993, he has lived in the English city of Exeter.

He completed eight years of schooling in his hometown, and high school in Banja Luka and Bihać. In 1961, he moved to Mostar, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in language, literature and history at the VPŠ. He continued his education part-time in Belgrade, and spent six years at the chair. From the age of sixteen, he started publishing articles in ” Malim novine “, “Oslobođenje”, ” Zadrugar ” and ” Krajina “. After that he was a permanent correspondent for the magazines “Rad”, “Eho”, “Sport”, “Yugoslavenski dan” and Radioteleviziju Sarajevo. He published his articles in the literary magazines “Kekec”, “Polet”, “Telegram”, “Lica”, “Bagdala”, and literary feuilletons in the magazine Una . From 1969 to 1980, he was the editor of the weekly magazine “Sloboda” and the editor-in-chief of the program “Nedjeljom za mlade” of Radio Mostar (ICM Mostar), and he also edited the papers of labor organizations in Mostar and Herzegovina is a review and preface for poetry collections, art collections catalogs, monographs, and was also represented in school textbooks and anthologies. of which he was the founder and artistic director from 1973 until their closure in 1992. He is the author of librettos for cantatas and oratorios with a theme from the national liberation struggle, such as: Emil Cossetto “Biography of Tito”, Vladimir Mustajbašić “Sutjeska”, Slobodan “Bodo” Kovačević “Krajina”. With over 200 composed songs and texts, he is one of the most sung Bosnian authors. For lyrics in entertainment music, he won first prizes at the most important festivals in SFRY. He was included in poetry and music anthologies, awarded for poetry and prose, and translated into several world languages. He was the first president of the Committee for Cultural and Entertainment Life of the ZOI Sarajevo in 1984. He was the screenwriter of the national anti-fascist celebrations, central republican and federal ” Youth Days “, and together with Per Zubec, he represented SFRY at XII Festival of Youth and Students of the World, Moscow ’85. He wrote scripts for documentary films by Hajrudin Šiba Krvavac from the late 1970s to 1992. He also did humanitarian work. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was the consul of the First Children’s Embassy in Sarajevo . He organized and managed the evacuation of about 10,500 mothers and children from Mostar, and as a volunteer for the European Union and UNICEF in Split, he helped transfer approximately 2,300 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad. Since March 1993, he has moved to Great Britain as a refugee. He has published short stories on the “BBC Radio World Service”, published in the British press, the magazine “SaLon” in London, “MM” in Germany, the wartime Sarajevo ” Svijet “, the Mostar magazine “Most”, and on the internet portal “tacno.net”. He was a regular correspondent for the Sarajevo magazines “Slobodna Bosna”, ” Start “, Glas antifašista , and the independent Belgrade magazine “Evropa”. Since 2002, he has had a column “Mostarenje” in “Bosanska pošta”. From 2013 to 2020, he presented the most famous contemporaries from the second half of the 20th century on Sarajevo’s Face TV with his author’s series “Namigivanje zvijezdama”.

He lives with his wife Azra, daughter Milena Prévost, and granddaughter Bella in the city of Exeter, southwest England.

It was composed by: Jure Robežnik , Jovan Adamov , Enes Bajramović, Slobodan “Bodo” Kovačević, Fadil Redžić, Gabor Lenđel , Josip Sliško , Zafir Hadžimanov , Kemal Monteno and others.

His songs were sung by: Kemal Monteno, Danijel Popović, Zdravko Čolić, Željko Samardžić , Jadranka Stojaković, Ismeta Krvavac, Jasna Gospić, Mladen Vojičić Tifa, Mišo Kovač, Krunoslav “Kićo” Slabinac , Miki Jevremović, Bisera Veletanlić, Maja Odžaklijevska , the groups Kamen na kamen , Iver , Pepel in kri, Indexi, Cod , Neki to vole vruće “, the children’s ensemble “Mostarske kiše”.

It was spoken by: Uroš Kravljača , Branko Ličen , Miralem Zubčević, Mira Stupica , Nada Đurevska, Dana Kurbalija Vican , Ante Vican, Etela Pardo , Sava Damjanović , Miša Janketić , Zlatko Crnković , Goran Sultanović , Tarik Filipović, Rade Šerbedžija, Vanessa Redgrave .

“Where the birds die”, poems, (Mostar 1971)
“The country gets stronger with our song”, songs with sheet music by Josip Sliško, (“Svjetlost” Sarajevo 1979)
“Tito is alive”, poems, (“Oslobođenje” Sarajevo/ “Dnevnik” Novi Sad 1985)
“Love and prayers”, poems, (“Oslobođenje” Sarajevo 1989)
“Pan with a black flute”, poems, (Rabic Sarajevo 2004)
“Mostarenje”, prose, (Rabic Sarajevo 2006
“Diary of a Stateless Person”, prose, (Art Rabic Sarajevo 2014)
“Lighthouses”, an anthology and monograph of BiH diaspora artists, (Art Rabic Sarajevo 2015)
“Pjesmo moja”, an anthology of sung poetry, representative and pocket edition. (Art Rabic Sarajevo 2017)
“Aleksa Reminder of Love”, monograph, (“Children’s book” Sarajevo 2018)
“There is no other sorrow without you”, monograph and anthology, (Art Rabic Sarajevo 2019)

recipient of over 100 certificates of appreciation, charters, awards in all SFRY republics and provinces,

Most awards from the Association of Anti-Fascist Fighters and Youth:

“SUBNOR BiH Award”,

“Golden Badge” of the Youth of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RK SSO BiH),

“Golden Plaque of the Day of Youth” of the youth of SFRY,

“Honorary citizen of Bosanski Petrovac”

“13th February Award of Mostar” with the Ensemble “Mostarske kiše”

“Bosanski Petrovac Plaque”

Honorary citizen of Danilovgrad,

“Honorary citizen of Bosanski Petrovac”

Before the war, he was a multiple winner of the annual awards of the Association of Journalists of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Radio Sarajevo Reporter’s Cup,