Ruždija Ru(s)so Sejdović is a poet, dramaturge, translator and activist who was born into a Čergarja family in the Ubli settlement near Podgorica, in the then Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Montenegro in 1966. In 1989, he emigrated to Germany where he co-founded the Romani Archive and Library of the Rom. e.V. organisation in Cologne.

His first own poetry collection was published in 1988 in Romani and Serbo-Croatian. While living in emigration in Germany, he continues publishing, editing and translating.

Apart from poetry and prose, Sejdović has written together with Jovan Nikolić the stage play Kosovo mon amour, which, subtitled a ‘war tragicomedy’, tells the fate of a Romani family trying to escape to Western Europe from Kosovo in 1999.

The play was directed by Rahim Burhan and staged by Theater Pralipe in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Later it was published in various language editions.

Selected bibliography

Sejdović, Ruždija. 1988. Svjetlost u ponoć / E jak an-e jrat. Titograd : Sekcija pisaca-radnika Crne Gore.

Sejdović, Ruždija-Ruso. 2011. Eremit. Podgorica: CEKUM.

Sejdović, Ruždija-Ruso. 2012. Svjetlost u ponoć. Podgorica: CEKUM.

Sejdović, Ruždija Russo. 2017. Der Eremit: Stille und Unruhen eines Rrom – Prosa. o.O.: epubli. ISBN-10: 3745036875 / ISBN-13: 978-3745036879.

Nikolić, Jovan; Sejdović, Ruždija Russo. 2004. Kosovo mon amour: Tragi-comédie ou drame tsigane traduit du rromani par [et préface de] Marcel Courthiades. Paris: L’espace d’un instant.

Nikolić, Jovan; Sejdović, Ruždija Russo. 2015. Kosovo Karusel. Ratna tradikomedija. Centar za očuvanje i razvoj kulture manjina Crne Gore, Pogorica (Montenegro).