Monika Herceg

Monika Herceg is a poet, playwright, editor, essayist and feminist from Croatia. Her poems have been translated into more than twenty languages, including French, German, English and Lithuanian, and she has received more than twenty awards for her work.

Early life and education Herceg was born in Sisak in 1990, and grew up in a village near the city. Her hometown was not far from the northern edge of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, an unrecognized Serb quasi-state that was active during the Croatian War of Independence. Herceg's formative years were therefore spent in the proximity of a war zone, which has influenced her work as an adult.

Herceg began writing poetry while studying physics, financing her studies by working several jobs.

Career Herceg first received recognition in 2017, when she won the Goran for Young Poets Award for her book Početne koordinate (Initial Coordinates). Told in the voice of Herceg's grandmother, Initial Coordinates portrays the experiences of impoverished women in twentieth-century rural Croatia. and the Fran Galović Prize.

At the 2019 Struga Poetry Evenings festival in Macedonia, Herceg was recognised as that year's Bridges of Struga Laureate. a poetry platform supported by the European Union's Creative Europe Program that works to promote poets from the continent.

Influences Herceg believes that making science accessible to the masses is important to combat misinformation,

Activism

Scientific literacy Herceg has criticised the anti-vaccination movement and creationism, describing them as anti-scientific and harmful to social progress. Her 2020 play, Where Tenderness is Brought, was written to bring attention to the matter of violence against women and intergenerational trauma. for her activism. The centre's work concerns defending freedom of speech and advancing human rights through journalism and publishing. In May 2025, Herceg signed a statement in her role as a member of the Centre extending support for then-ongoing student protests in Serbia.

In 2020, she attended a commemoration of the 1991 murder of the Zec family organised by the Anti-Fascist League of Croatia, where she read verses.

While accepting the Gdańsk Literary Award at the European Poet of Freedom Festival in 2024, Herceg drew awareness to the European migrant crisis, the death tolls of the Russo-Ukrainian War and Genocide in Gaza, and abortion rights in Europe.

Personal life Herceg lives and works as an editor in Zagreb, and is a mother to two children. She is a member of the Croatian Writers Society, having served on the editorial board of its magazine since 2021.

Awards

Works