Vesna GoldsworthyFRSL (née Bjelogrlic,Serbian:Bjelogrlić, pronounced: Byelogerlitch), is aSerbian writer andpoet.[1][2] She is from Belgrade and obtained her BA in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from theUniversity of Belgrade in 1985. She has lived inEngland since 1986.Goldsworthy became a Professor of Creative Writing at theUniversity of Exeter in 2017.[3] She previously worked atKingston University where she was Director of the Centre for Suburban Studies.[4] Goldsworthy is a Professor Emeritus of the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing at theUniversity of East Anglia.[5]
Her books includeInventingRuritania (1998), the memoirChernobyl Strawberries (2005),[6] and a collection of poemsThe Angel of Salonika (2011).[7] Her first novel,Gorsky, which updated the story ofThe Great Gatsby, was published in 2015.[8] Her second novel,Monsieur Ka, which is a development of the story ofAnna Karenina, was published in 2018.[9]Goldsworthy published her third novelIron Curtain: a love story in 2022.[10]
Goldsworthy wrote poetry since her youth. The poems were published in literary magazines and anthologies throughout the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties winning a number of prizes in the formerYugoslavia.[11] In 1984 she read a sonnet at a soccer stadium in front of 30,000 people.[1]: 99–106, 47–48 [12]During the summer of 1984 she attended the Karl Marx Institute of theUniversity of Sofia in order to researchByzantine prayers for her college dissertation and to studyBulgarian.[1]: 136–138
In 1986 Goldsworthy moved to England. After working for two publishing houses, she spent ten years broadcasting and producing for the BBC World Service in her nativeSerbian, and in English on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.[1]: 167–182 [13] She received an M.A. in Modern English Literature in 1992 and a Ph.D. in 1996, both from theUniversity of London.[13] Goldsworthy then became a faculty member at theUniversity of East Anglia where she continues as Professor Emeritus in the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing.[14]In 2009 Goldsworthy joined theInternational Dublin Literary Award panel of judges.[15]In 2017 she joined the faculty of theUniversity of Exeter as a Professor of Creative Writing.[13]Goldsworthy is a member of the Folio-Academy.[16]
Her books have been translated into over twenty languages.[17] Goldsworthy read her memoirChernobyl Strawberries on the BBC. It was listed in the Radio Choice list ofThe Guardian.[18]J. M. Coetzee commenting on theAngel of Salonika, wrote that her writing was "European in sensibility, elegiac in tone, these poems mark the arrival of a welcome new voice in English poetry."[19]Gorsky, her first novel, remained on theLondon TimesBest Seller list for five months.[20][21]Gorsky was also listed as aNY Times Editors Choice.[22] The novelIron Curtain was listed among theFinancial Times best summer books of 2022, theNew Yorker: Best books We've Read This Year (2023), andThe Christian Science Monitor Ten Best Books of February 2023.[23][24][25]
Goldsworthy formerly worked for the BBC Serbian Service as a journalist.In 2010, she presented aBBC Radio 4 programme on finding one's voice in a foreign land.In 2017 she was a guest on BBC Radio 3'sPrivate Passions.[30]
