04/14/2026
Croatian native and author Ana Božičević, who received a “40 Under 40: The Future of Feminism” award from Feminist Press, will read from her poetry on Thursday, April 23, at SUNY Cortland.
Božičević will offer selections from her 2023 book of poems, New Life, at 5 p.m. in the Dowd Gallery. All My Friends Books, a local bookstore, will be onsite with books for sale.
The event, which is free and open to the public, continues the SUNY Cortland English Department’s Distinguished Voices in Literature lecture series. The reading also continues the university’s Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee event series with the 2025-26 theme of ‘water.’
“Ana Božičević’s work is full of wonder and surprise, even when grounded in the ordinary moments of everyday life,” said Heather Bartlett, SUNY Cortland assistant professor of English and co-director of the English Department’s visiting writers series.
“Students will be able to connect with her poems because they are of the here and now; they are accessible and surprising, pushing us all to think about the world in new ways."
A poet, translator, teacher and occasional singer, Božičević grew up in Zadar, Croatia, before moving to Brooklyn, N.Y., where she’s lived since 1997.
In a starred review of New Life, Publisher's Weekly said, “Championing the confessional voice with dynamic lyricism, Božičević offers sonorous texture, rollicking conceits, and unparalleled vision.”
In addition to New Life (Wave Books), Božičević is the author of Povratak lišća / Return of the Leaves, Selected Poems in Croatian (Hrvatsko Društvo Pisaca/Croatian Writers Society, 2020); Joy of Missing Out (Birds, LLC, 2017); Rise in the Fall (Birds, LLC, 2013), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry; and Stars of the Night Commute (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2009).
Her poem “Birthday,” from New Life, was featured in The New York Times Magazine. Of it, Anne Boyer writes, “Ana Božičević’s 'Birthday' is a cunning defense of poetry’s work. This poem meets cynicism with determined simplicity, the form making its own argument via a spare and elegant use of repetition and surprise. Wonder needs no ornaments, only an invitation, and to have been born at all, ‘Birthday’ reminds us, is a good enough reason for a party.”
Božičević has worked for PEN America, which recognized her with a PEN American Center/New York State Council on the Arts grant; as well as the Center for the Humanities of the Graduate Center, CUNY and the Bruce High Quality Foundation.
Fittingly, this literary event comes to campus in April, which is National Poetry Month.
“SUNY Cortland is lucky to be featuring such a prominent and lively voice in celebration,” Bartlett said.
Additional support was provided by the President’s Fund, the Provost’s Office, Cortland College Foundation, Cortland Auxiliary Services and The Writing Center.
For more information, contact Bartlett.