novelist, poet, playwright, performer,
university professor, theatre scholar, editor and translator
Author of 23 books in different genres of fiction, non-fiction, drama and poetry; member of L'Académie Mallarmé and l’Académie Européenne de Poésie. Member of the International PEN, serving two mandates on the International PEN Board (2002-2007). Member of Association of the Women of the Mediterranean Region. Received Croatian «Vladimir Nazor“ Annual National Prize for Literature and Arts (1993); her play Eisgeneral was selected at Berliner Festspiele TT Stückemarkt (2005); received 1st Poeteka International Poetry Prize (2005). Petlevski is the author of two awarded books on theatre for which she received award for contribution to theoretical dramaturgy. Received T-portal Award for the Novel of the Year for The Time of Lies. Founder and director of Literature Live International Festival in Zagreb.
Latest editions: Les Mots de passe de l’oubli. Galerie Librairie L’Ollave: Rustrel, 2013 (poetry in French); Tabu III. Stanje sumraka (Taboo III. Twilight State) Fraktura, Zaprešić 2013; Tabu II. Bilo nam je tako lijepo! (Taboo II. We felt so nice!) Fraktura, Zaprešić, 2011 (novel); Tabu I. Vrijeme laži (Taboo I. Time of Lies), Fraktura, Zaprešić, 2009, (novel). Drama i vrijeme (Drama and Time), ITI-Unesco, 2008 (theatre studies); Moj Antonio Diavolo (My Antonio Diavolo) Fraktura, 2007 (novel); Spojena lica (Joined Faces), HDP-Durieux, Zagreb 2006 (poetry); Noćni trening (Night Training) Fraktura, 2006 (novel).
Full professor at the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb. On the editorial board of two important literary magazines: “Književna republika” Literary Review, published in Zagreb, and „Sarajevo Notebooks“, an international magazine for South Slavic literature, published in Sarajevo and Ljubljana. Edited literary section of “Vijenac” fortnightly newspaper published in Zagreb, as well as Croatian section of „Poetry International Web“, an international electronic magazine based in Rotterdam.
Nationally and internationally anthologized author. Writes in Croatian and in English. Some of her sonnets originally written in English appeared in Douglas Messerli’s anthology of world authors, 50: A Celebration of Sun & Moon Classics (Sun & Moon Press, Los Angeles, 1995). Her poetry, drama and extracts from her fiction have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Catalan, Slovene, Polish, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Galician, Albanian, Slovak and Japanese. She had readings and public recitals at numerous international literary events.
Her musical drama “Cagliostro Forever” was short-listed for Verona and UNESCO international poetry and opera competition. Edited and translated an anthology of contemporary American poetry (“Spin off, 1991). Edited the first choice of Nadine Gordimer’s fiction in Croatian translation. In 1999 Petlevski spent two months as a writer in residence at Villa Waldberta International Munich Artists’ Center in Feldafing on Starnberg Lake. One of her essays was included in the book, “Mein Hermann Hesse – Eine Hommage. 35 Autoren der Gegenwart nehmen Stellung zu Hermann Hesse” (Ed. Uli Rothfuss, Quintessenz Verlag, Berlin 2002).
After more than ten years of traveling between Zagreb and Munich, Sibila Petlevski settled in Zagreb with her husband David Gazarov, a German pianist and composer of Armenian origin, with whom she prepared material for a CD with poetry and music.
POETRY:
Kristali (Crystals) Gradus, Zagreb 1988
Skok s mjesta (Standing Jump) Split 1990; Skok od mesto, Macedonian edition tr. by Popovski, Misla, Skopje 1990.
Sto aleksandrijskih epigrama (A Hundred Alexandrian Epigrams). SGI, Zagreb 1993.
Babylon. Bibliophilic, multi-language edition with N. Arbanas etchings;
languages: Croatian, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Slovene;
original in English, Pandora, Zagreb 2000
Heavy Sleepers. Bibliophilic edition in English with Nevenka Arbanas etchings,
Pandora, Zagreb 2000 Libitina. Bibliophilic edition in English with etchings, Canvas, Zagreb 2002
Spojena lica (Joined Faces), HDP-Durieux, Zagreb 2006
Joined Faces (a trilingual English-Croatian-Macedonian edition) EvaTas/Blesok:Skopje 2009
Les Mots de passe de l’oubli (Galerie Librairie L’Ollave: Rustrel, 2013
FICTION:
Francuska suita (French Suite) (novel). Meandar, Zagreb 1996 , Fraktura 2007
Koreografija patnje (Choreography of Suffering) (novel with bilingual poetry in
English and Croatian). Konzor, Zagreb 2002
Noćni trening (Night training) (novel). Fraktura, 2006
Moj Antonio Diavolo (My Antonio Diavolo) (novel). Fraktura, 2007
Vrijeme laži (The Time of Lies, Taboo Vol.1) (novel). Fraktura, 2009
Bilo nam je tako lijepo! (We felt so nice, Taboo Vol. 2) (novel). Fraktura, 2011
Stanje sumraka (Twilight State, Taboo Vol. 3) (novel). Fraktura, 2013
DRAMA:
Ledeni general (Eisgeneral), 2005
Cagliostro Forever, a drama in verse, 2007
Rimbaud’s House, 2007
Lyrebird, 2014
Mexicana (Aztec Prayer), a tone poem (composed by Mladen Tarbuk), 2016
NONFICTION:
Simptomi moderniteta (Symptoms of Modernity) (theatre studies). International Theatre Institute – Croatian Center, Zagreb 2000
Kazalište suigre (Theatre of Interplay) (theatre studies). Antibarbarus, Zagreb 2001
Knjiga o vodi (Book on Water) (children’s book). Kigen, Zagreb 2004
Prostor razmjene. Uvodna studija o Gavellinoj potrazi za metodologijom kulturalne povijesti. („Exchange Space A study on Gavella’s search for a methodology of cultural history“). In: Branko Gavella. Dvostruko lice govora. Branko Gavella. (Double Face of Speech) (theatre studies). CDU, Zagreb 2005
Drama i vrijeme (Drama & Time) (theatre studies). International Theatre Institute – Croatian Center, Zagreb 2008
Kazalište srama (Theatre of Shame) (theatre/cultural studies). Leykam International, Zagreb 2015
AWARDS:
Vladimir Nazor Award, Annual National Prize for Literature and Arts for the poetry collection “A Hundred Alexandrian Epigrams”, 1993
Petar Brečić Prize for Dramaturgy and Theatre Studies for the books “Kazalište
suigre” (“Theatre of Interplay”) and “Simptomi moderniteta” (“Symptoms
of Modernity”), 2001
Berliner Festspiele TT Stückemarkt selection for the play “Ledeni general” (“Ice General”), 2005 (Der Eisgeneral. Drama. Aus dem Kroatischen. Berlin 2004. Translated into German by Alida Bremer. In: Relations (3-4/2006), pp. 152-185)
Poeteka International Poetry Prize, 2005
T-com Award for the Novel of the Year, 2010
10th Women Playwrights’ International selection for the play “Lyrebird” (Cape Town, South Africa 2015)
The City of Zagreb Award for Contribution to Literature, Science and Culture (1015)
Graffiti at Hatera, ex paper-factory in Rijeka:
