On 17 January 2025, PEN Flanders is organising an evening with writer, researcher and Srebrenica survivor Emir Suljagić in collaboration with Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent.

In 2025, it will be 30 years since the Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia, which claimed the lives of more than eight thousand victims and led to the first convictions for genocide and crimes against humanity in Europe since World War II.

The theme of the evening is trauma and free speech. The right and freedom to speak is crucial in the aftermath of genocide. In his two literary testimonies, “Postcards from the Grave” and “A Map of Disappearance” (2006 and 2022, respectively), Suljagić evokes in short sketches the lives of murdered loved ones, questioning whether and how it is possible to write about such an experience of loss.

Suljagić is also director of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre in Bosnia, pivotal in the international culture of genocide remembrance, also a museum and research centre. In his work for the centre, work on genocide remembrance interweaves with caring for the community of survivors, which extends from Bosnia to other countries in Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden) as well as to the United States and Australia.

The talk will be introduced by Guido Snel, writer, translator and working at the University of Amsterdam, and conducted with psychologist Birsen Taspinar.

Friday 17.01.2025 at 20h in Museum Dr Guislain
Free, but registration via this link is required.

This event is in English.