100% Cotton

Ivana Bodrožić lives in Zagreb, Croatia. While her first novel, The Hotel Tito, was a bestseller when it came out in Croatia in 2010—and was awarded the prestigious Prix Ulysse in France and several awards in Croatia and elsewhere in the Balkan region—her second novel, Pits, stirred controversy for its attention to corruption in Croatia. Bodrožić has also published two volumes of poetry. The story in this issue comes from her collection of the same name, 100% Cotton. (updated 4/2019)

Ellen Elias-Bursać has been translating novels and nonfiction by Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian writers since the 1980s. Her translation of David Albahari’s novel Götz and Meyer won the National Translation Award, given by the American Literary Translators Association, in 2006. She is now vice president of ALTA. (updated 4/2019)