Branislav Glumac

Branislav Glumac (born in Smederevo on 10 June 1938) is a Croatian poet, novelist, playwright, and literary and art critic. He grew up in Virovitica, where he completed secondary school, and moved to Zagreb in 1958. He graduated in Yugoslav studies from the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1973. His first poem appeared in Virovitički list in 1953.

His poetry developed alongside the generation associated with the journal Razlog. Existential unease, intimacy, irony and self-irony shape his free verse, whose rhythms often approach everyday speech. Urban experience is frequently contrasted with memories of his native surroundings and an idealised provincial world. His poetry collections include Otok (1960), Unutrašnji pejzaži (1966), Ljubavna režanja (1977), Brijeg hijena (1998), Ljekarna od vremena (2006) and Kazaljke oko očiju (2010).

He reached his widest readership with Zagrepčanka (1974), a notable example of Croatian “jeans prose”, a literary mode associated with youthful urban voices and resistance to established conventions. The novel centres on a young woman’s speech and experience. Its omission of punctuation and disruption of conventional prose reinforce its challenge to social norms. It has appeared in numerous editions and was adapted for the stage.

His fiction also includes the collections Posljednji živi mrtvac (1965), Pohvatajte male lisice (1966) and Živjeti kao čovjek (1975), and the novels Pasji praznik (1980) and Pokusni čovjek (1991). Their dissatisfied and disoriented characters struggle to reconcile private expectations with social reality.

Recollections of artists and conversations about creativity form another strand of his work, represented by Svi moji ljudi (1987), Oko-ruka-kist (2005) and 145 sjećanja na ljude (2008). His close involvement with the visual arts also led him to donate an art collection to Virovitica City Museum.