Aleksandar Hemon

Aleksandar Hemon has written poetry, nonfiction, short story collections, and novels, most recently The World and All That It Holds. His earlier novel The Lazarus Project, was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. Other notable works include his autobiography The Book of My Lives, a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award; the short story collection Love & Obstacles; and The Nowhere Man, also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, intending a brief visit, but while there, Sarajevo came under siege, and he was unable to return home. He started writing shortly thereafter and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004. Hemon now lives in New Jersey where he teaches creative writing at Princeton University. He performs music as Cielo Hemon.