Gordana Djurić (Đurić) was born in the village of Draginje, Central Serbia in 1958. From an early age she developed a literary talent and her works were published in periodicals and collections by young and promising Yugoslav writers.

Gordana was the first Romni in Yugoslavia to have her own poetry collection published; the famous Society for Romani Language and Literature in Vojvodina, based in Novi Sad (Serbia), published the work in Romani and Serbian in 1989 under the title Dukhaldo ilo [Painful heart].

On the one hand, she was fully integrated into the Serbian literary scene in Serbia, where she took part in poetry readings and belonged to writers’ clubs and literature circles. On the other hand, her literary expressions were firmly rooted in Romani culture, and her texts, though universal in terms of the topics covered, were written in Romani.

Gordana died tragically in Kosovo in 1999. She was alleged to have been killed by Albanian extremists. Even her last hours were devoted to her literary life: she died on the way to a poetry reading in Gračanica.

Bibliography

Ðurić, Gordana. 1989. Dukhaldo ilo. Ranjeno srce. Novi Sad: Društvo Vojvodine za jezik i književnost Roma.