Mlakić Josip

Corresponding members VI. Department of Literature
Mlakić Josip

Date of birth:

  • 1964

Place of birth:

  • Bugojno, BiH

Adresses:

  • Ive Andrića b.b., 70280 G. Vakuf-Uskoplje, BiH

Phones:

  • +387 63 384 048

Emails:

Mlakić Josip

Corresponding members VI. Department of Literature

Membership in Academy:

  • corresponding member – Department of Literature (5/19/2022 – …)

Biography

Josip Mlakić, Croatian writer (Bugojno, Bosnia and Herzagovina, January 24, 1964). Mlakic completed his mechanical engineering studies in Sarajevo in 1988. He attracted the attention of readers and critics with his short novels When the fogs lift (2000) and The living and the dead (2002), for which he received the Gjalski Award, with the theme of the Croat-Bosniak conflict in Bosnia. Interweaving memories of images of peace and those of war, Mlakic impressively portrayed an atmosphere of war chaos and absurdity. In the novel The Guardians of Bridges (2004) he deals with the post-war period, and in Dogs and clowns (2006) the time before the beginning of the war in BiH. The novel In the footsteps of a snake’s shirt (2007) deals with the Bosnian past (for this novel he received the Ivan Goran Kovačić Vjesnik Award ), and The people who Planted Trees (2010) with the world of war veterans in peacetime. Planet Friedman (2012) describes the anti-utopian society, and Freshly painted (2014), the annual Vladimir Nazor Award, and God’s wrath (2015) return to the theme of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His most complex novel, Portrait in ice (2019), Mirko Kovač Award, covers much more widely than his earlier novels. He also published the novels The Gospel according to Barabbas, Of gold, men and dogs and A Tekke on the Vrbas, a complex novel that deals with Ivo Andrić’s postmodern discourse.

Mlakic has also published several collections of short stories (Snail’s house, 1997; Reflection in water, 2002; Family painting, 2002; Midnight gray, 2004) and the poetry collection The eyes of an android (2004).

He is also a screenplay writer. According to his scripts, six feature films were made. For the screenplay of the film Names of cherries, directed by Branko Schmidt, Mlakic won the Golden Arena for screenplay at the Pula Film Festival in 2016.

Since May 2022, he has been a corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.