2023

What Does Slavic Fantasy Even Mean?

First published on May 30, 2023 in SFWA Blog – (1.000 words)

When my publisher prepared the marketing strategy for my upcoming novel Dark Woods, Deep Water, one of the obvious labels proposed besides “fantasy” and “dark” was “Slavic.” It’s clear why—I’m Croatian; I’ve written a book featuring Morana, the Slavic Goddess of Death. And yet, this label caused me intense discomfort. It took me a fair amount of soul-searching to understand why.

2021

Danse Macabre: Equality in Death in Medieval Istrian Frescoes

First published on September 2, 2021 in The Deadlands – (1.800 words)

The fourteenth century is also the time when we first encounter the personification of death. The image of the skeletal reaper or archer appears, introducing Death not as a metaphysical transition into afterlife, but as an agent of destruction.