Type Of Publisher
Online
Year Established
1994
Address
Vojvode Stepe Stepanovića 31, Stari Slankamen, Vojvodina, 22329, Serbia
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Mission Statement / Editorial Focus
BALKAN LITERARY HERALD (ΒΑΛΚΑΝΙΚΟΣ ΛΟΓΟΤΕΧΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΚΑΣ, БАЛКАНСКИ КЊИЖЕВНИ ГЛАСНИК, BALKANSKI KNJIŽEVNI GLASNIK, HÃBÃRGIU BALCANICU DI LITARATURÃ, БАЛКАНСКИ КНИЖЕВЕН ГЛАСНИК, BALKAN EDEBIYAT DERGISI, LAJMËTARI LETRAR BALLKANIK, BALKÁN IRODALMI ÚJSÁG, MESAGERUL LITERAR AL BALCANILOR, HÉRAUT LITTÉRAIRE DES BALKANS) is the first European electronic magazine for literature (est. 1994). The founder and editor-in-chief of BLH is Dušan Gojkov. At the moment when Dušan Gojkov founded the Balkan Literary Herald, the cultural space of the country that existed for more than seventy years – Yugoslavia – began to fall apart. Not that, because of the war operations in the whole country, it was not possible to find out anything about new books, theatre performances, films or exhibitions that appeared in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Skopje, Podgorica... but because of the war and international sanctions it was even impossible to send a telegram to family or friends informing them that someone had died. There was absolutely no communication. And that could not be allowed. The Balkan Literary Herald filled that hole. Balkan arts, especially theatre, radio, film and, ultimately, literature have a specific bouquet, similar, if not the same trends, the same ways... Trends and ways often incomprehensible to people who come from other cultural backgrounds. Of course, by "Balkan" we mean all Yugoslav (or South Slavic) literature, as well as Greek, Albanian, Romanian, Hungarian, Turkish, Romani, Ruthenian, Slovak and Armãn literature. It is about a very characteristic mentality that evidently connects writers of these areas. At the time when the Balkan Literary Herald began to appear on "electronic news-stands", there were not even enough computers for all interested readers. After all, there were few people who had a computer at home, and those who had a modem and the ability to communicate with other computers, or to connect to the network, were even rarer. (Today, almost everyone has a computer in their pocket more powerful than the computers that ran the Apollo missions from Earth to the Moon and back. And every child can use that computer. A cell phone.) BLH and White Library BLH are adapted for easy reading from a mobile phone, tablet, laptop, PC... and PDF documents can be downloaded and printed for free, at will. It is important to mention that Dušan Gojkov has been running BLH independently, without state aid, or aid from the European Union or any international organization, for almost thirty years. Not to mention how many times it was heard that "BLH is not a good publishing house or magazine, because it publishes Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Macedonians, Albanians..." (it depends on which side the person attacking comes from) or that "it is not good because publishes the LGBT+ population, Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists..." Today, BLH has editorial offices in all Balkan countries, not just in Former Yugoslavia: in Belgrade, Serbia; Zagreb, Croatia; Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Nikšić, Montenegro; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Kruševo, North Macedonia; Pécs, Hungary; Bucharest, Romania; Sofia, Bulgaria; Thessaloniki, Greece; Tirana, Albania; Istanbul, Turkey; Nicosia, Cyprus. Not a single regional editor or collaborator (prose writer, poet, essayist, literary theorist or literary historian, translator) has ever asked for a fee for his work. The entire editorial staff of BLH is volunteer. BLH is the only magazine in the world that publishes poetry (as well as prose and literary theory) in all Balkan languages, or in translation into one of the Balkan languages. So far, 60 volumes of magazine and 70 electronic books have been published. Both electronic magazine and electronic books are completely free, for all readers of this world. For the last couple of years, in addition to regular work at the White Library and the magazine, the Balkan Literary Herald has published Anthologies of Contemporary Literature by Serbo-Croatian (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin writers) - by Dušan Gojkov, Armãn poets - by Lila Cona, Turkish poetry and prose - by Mesut Şenol and Emel Koşar, Macedonian - by Marlena Petruševa, Albanian - by Ben Andoni, Greek writers - by Petros Golitsis and Dušan Gojkov and Kurdish contemporary literature - by Seyfettin Araç.
Also, BLH has published the very notable Anthologies of women's dramatists (an anthology of women's poetry of the Balkan Peninsula is also being prepared), the Anthology of scientific texts on the Avant-garde movement of the 20th Century, Zenit.
BLH is in the process of finishing the Anthology of Contemporary Hungarian Literature - by Károly Méhes, Romanian - by Horia Garbea and Roma Anthology - by Zlatomir Jovanović. Without BLH, cultural life on the Balkan Peninsula would not have recovered for a long time from the wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, as well as in Serbia and Montenegro. Communication between writers and artists would still be very sporadic and only diplomatic. Dušan Gojkov and BLH opened the door to renewed communication between writers of the entire Western Balkan Region.
Do You Accept Unsolicited Submissions?
Yes
Reading Period
Year round
Response Time
1 - 1 weeks
Average Unique Visitors Per Month
5000
Do You Have Any Cover Letter Advice?
No.
What Do You Look For In A Submission?
Good literature.
What Advice Do You Have For First-time Submitters?
Read few volumes of Balkan Literary Herald first.
Do You Have A Favorite Unsolicited Submission Discovery Or Anecdote?
Yes.
Who Is Your Ideal Reader?
Patient
