Prvoslav “Pearse” Vujcic

Prvoslav “Pearse” Vujcic,
master of comparative literature, philosopher and writer,
founder of the Urban Book Circle

B I O G R A P H Y

Prvoslav Vujcic (Serbia, 1960) is a master of comparative literature, an author, philosopher, the son of Jefrem and Nadezda, the father of four children (Teodora, Jefimija, Djuradj, Dimitrije), a lecturer, journalist, columnist, translator, aphorist, artist on leave, cultural dissident with posttraumatic stress disorder, director of short films, knight and poet. He received his education in Pozarevac, Belgrade, Chicago and Toronto. He was born on July 20, 1960 in Pozarevac and has been living in Canada for over three decades. Vujcic is nicknamed Pearse after Irish poet and patriot Padraig Pearse.

Vujcic was awarded the Poetry Ambassador Order (United States).

Prvoslav Vujcic is the author of sixteen books – eight books in English and eight books in Serbian.

Vujcic’s book Razmisljanja jednog lesa was supposed to be published in 1983 but it was banned in court by the Communist regime of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and was destroyed the night before the scheduled book promotion. The book was published two decades later in 2004. A year after the ban of the book Razmisljanja jednog lesa in 1984, Vujcic read his poems in a mining pit in Tuzla for which the “miners carried him on their arms and the government sentenced him to seven days in prison.” In the Tuzla prison he wrote Kastriranje vetra in one breath which was published two decades later in 2005.

Twenty-six years after the banning of the book Razmisljanja jednog lesa by the Communist regime of the SFR Yugoslavia, Vujcic lived to see another book in Serbian banned. His book Povratnici was banned in Canada in 2009 but not by the Canadian government. This time, a “silent” ban was in question. Without any reasoning given, the Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Canada publishing house Istocnik made a breach of agreement and didn't publish Vujcic's book. The Istocnik representative, to whom the money was given at the promotion of Vujcic’s book, did not present Vujcic with the list of people who donated money for the publishing of his book Povratnici which spoke about the suffering of the Serbian people in the war at the end of the last decade of the 20th century. Prvoslav Vujcic never found out who donated money and how much was collected. After ten months of Vujcic insisting that, by Canadian law, the money must be returned to the donators with a receipt if Istocnik doesn’t intend to hold true to the agreement and publish the book, the representatives of Istocnik returned the money to the donators.

After an officially banned book by the Communist regime of the SFR Yugoslavia (Belgrade, 1983) and an unofficially banned book by the Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Canada publishing house Istocnik (Toronto, 2009), Prvoslav Vujcic became the first author in the world whose book was banned by atheists (the League of Communists of Yugoslavia) while the second book was banned by churchgoers (the Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Canada publishing house Istocnik).

Prvoslav Vujcic, along with his son Djuradj, founded the Urban Book Circle in Canada on February 14, 2012. Prvoslav Vujcic was the co-founder of the United Serbs Football Club in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada in 1992. On a side note, Vujcic played soccer in the youth categories of FK Zeleznicar Pozarevac as a teenager. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Association of Writers of Serbia, the Serbian Literary Society, the Association of Writers of Republika Srpska, the International Association of Writers (United States) and the Royal Canadian Legion. He is an honourable member of the Association of Poets and Writers (Canada).

Professor of literature Desanka Maksimovic, the renowned Serbian poet and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, called Prvoslav Vujcic “her poetic son” and he called her his “granny Desa.”

The stories, poems and thoughts of Prvoslav Vujcic can be found in numerous anthologies worldwide. The renowned Serbian literary critics Miodrag Perisic and Cedomir Mirkovic said that Vujcic is “one of the most significant living Serbian poets and dissidents.” After attending a promotion of Vujcic’s two collections of poetry in the main hall of the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Serbia (Belgrade, 2005), renowned Serbian author Milovan Vitezovic was amazed by Vujcic’s poetry and said, “After listening to Vujcic’s magical poetry, I cannot and will not write poetry any longer.” The renowned Canadian author Elizabeth Abbott said that “Vujcic’s poetry is a wonder that extends life” (Toronto, 2009). Vujcic and his work can be found in the book Mozdana veza sa Srbijom, 100 dragulja srpskog rasejanja (Brain Connection with Serbia, 100 Jewels of the Serbian Diaspora) by Radivoje Petrovic, PhD. The book features the “one hundred most-known Serbs throughout the world-wide Serbian diaspora.” Petrovic worked on the book along with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Serbia, the cultural-scientific institution for Serbs of the diaspora and the Milivoje Mandic Foundation for Raska (2004). In 2005, Vujcic was featured on the cover of the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Serbia book called U cast pisaca iz rasejanja (In Honour of Writers in the Diaspora). He was also featured in a 1989 edition of the Canada Gazette (The Canada Gazette: La Gazette Du Canada, Volume 123, Issue 1, Part 1 in English & French / Queen’s Printer, 1989).

Prvoslav Vujcic’s poems have been translated into 26 languages and his work has influenced poets worldwide, namely in North America. He has received many awards and recognitions. He received the Zmaj Award for a written book (Belgrade, Serbia), Zmaj Award for poetry (Belgrade, Serbia), Minerva Award for spreading the truth about Serbs with his life and written word (Toronto, Canada) and the Literary Critic Award for poetry (United States). In 2007, the International Association of Writers chose him as an Ambassador of Poetry in the USA.

He has been living in Canada since January 31, 1987.

Published books