{"id":15006,"date":"2024-07-01T14:03:34","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/?post_type=product&p=15006"},"modified":"2025-08-25T04:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T09:20:48","slug":"sympathy-for-the-salami","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/","title":{"rendered":"sympathy for the salami"},"content":{"rendered":"

Milena Markovi\u0107<\/a><\/h1>\n

Translated by Steven Teref<\/a> & Maja Teref<\/a><\/h2>\n

sympathy for the salami<\/b><\/h3>\n

ISBN:978-1-956921-29-8<\/p>\n

Paperback, 194 pages, August, 2024 (Pre-order sale pricing through July 31; ships in early August.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Milena Markovi\u0107 is a city poet who revels in the crumbling concrete and smoked meat of Belgrade and other European metropolises populated by the addicted, the down-and-out, the mad, and the shady. sympathy for the salami<\/em> selects work from her seven poetry collections, including excerpts from her novel-in-verse Children<\/em>, which encompass the full range of her humor and terror. Her poems present a blemished nakedness in their candor about her drug-and-alcohol-fueled music scene days and their aftermath, as well as her life as a mother to a son with intellectual disabilities. Motifs of substance abuse, an unabashed love of meat, the dailiness of European urban life, childhood trauma, haunted dreamscapes, and the demands of motherhood permeate the work, steeped in the intricacies of Balkan culture. Readers of American poets as diverse as Anne Sexton and Charles Bukowski will find Markovi\u0107\u2019s confessional voice, while readers of Charles Simic will chuckle over her humorous voltas, fans of surrealism will feel at home in her dreamscapes, and\u00a0 Frank O\u2019Hara devotees will appreciate her fresh portrayals of European urban dailiness.<\/p>\n

\n

Front Cover Art:\u00a0 Simonida Raj\u010devi\u0107
\nAuthor Photo:\u00a0\u00a9Zoran Lon\u010darevi\u0107<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

In sympathy for the salami<\/em>, we hear a vivid, honest, often funny, sometimes disturbing voice from this Serbian poet who confronts her life more directly than most of us have the courage to do. As she tells us, she writes for everyone, the living and the dead and those who won\u2019t die, and for the children who \u201cwalk in the murk,\u201d so they can find the way out of it. She herself is still in it, and she has learned that \u201cthe murk is not the worst place\/the end is not the worst place\/fear is.\u201d Whether she is describing wild parties or delirium tremens, a love affair or her grandfather grabbing his granddaughters behind the house, even her ambivalent feelings toward the disabled son to whom she gave birth when she was not much more than a child, she remains fearless. At times, the rush of language and the bohemian scenes remind me of Frank O\u2019Hara, at other times her despair makes me think of Billie Holiday greeting her heartbreak. But Milena Markovi\u0107 is very much her own self, and Maja and Steven Teref have found a muscular English to embody her voice and make us forget that she does not live just down the street.<\/p>\n

\u2014Susanna Lang<\/strong><\/a>, author of Travel Notes from the River Styx<\/em>, and translator of My Soul Has No Corners<\/a><\/em> by Souad Labbize<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A bold dystopian account of a woman\u2019s physical and emotional journey sans termination. The meat of Markovi\u0107\u2019s poetry is focused on the inner life of a woman coming of age in the traumatic post-conflict transition of the world around her. A torrent of disparate words laden with feelings of love, passion, fear, regret, sorrow, disillusionment\u2014the pandemonium of a quotidian life. Her narrative is straightforward with no exposition. Her self-denunciation harsh, her language bold, her faculty of emotions immense. sympathy for the salami illustrates the author\u2019s innovative style, which can be read as her appeal to reconcile with fate. Markovi\u0107\u2019s poems are a powerful read in any language you choose, even in one you do not understand. They contain a steady beat, the familiar cadence of a song or an epic\u2014something that resonates with you long after you put the book down. Laurels to both the poet and the translators who provided us with this fine-tuned English edition of the original verses.
\n\u2014Nada Petkovi\u0107,<\/strong> University of Chicago<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Welcome to the brilliant, incisive, and feral world of Milena Markovi\u0107\u2019s poems, where the rats are \u201cfat as piglets\u201d and where we\u2019re not afraid \u201cto laugh at the wolf \/ to spit at the boar \/ to soar with the birds.\u201d The brisk, hauntingly dreamlike narratives of sympathy for the salami<\/em> remind us, poem after poem, how terrifying and exhilarating it is to desire and to be desired. Huge thanks to Steven and Maja Teref for this rich and evocative translation from the Serbian\u2014for the care and mindfulness with which they cross
\nlinguistic and cultural borders.<\/p>\n

\u2014Tony Trigilio,<\/strong> author of\u00a0Craft: A Memoir<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This book fits Richard Hell\u2019s definition of punk: \u201canti-authority, independent, tricky, unsentimental, dirty, quick, subversive, guiltless.\u201d I was mesmerized by the squalor of Markovi\u0107\u2019s Belgrade and the quickness and energy of her lines. But more than that, I was and am especially in awe, given that the book\u2019s subjects are largely family and the past, of its unsentimentality and guiltlessness. These poems love only honesty. They will never stoop to comfort. Violence and impassivity are almost an aesthetic here. The past is present tense, and it\u2019s met with curiosity and without apology: \u201cmy hair is filthy there is no water \/ my scalp is bleeding from scratching \/ I\u2019m waiting for summer so I can wear a tube top \/ and go to the sava \/ they can keep bombing.\u201d There seems no group to which this voice belongs\u2014certainly not patriots, not academia though Markovi\u0107 is a professor, not mothers though she is one of those too\u2014she does not even have a home among her beloved dead. The only institution that might claim her is poetry. But her hurtling and defiant poems show that she, like many great poets, is a stranger even there. So grateful to finally have this bilingual collection deftly translated by Steven Teref and Maja Teref, and yet beware,\u00a0<\/span>sympathy for the salami\u00a0<\/i><\/span>will only make you hungry for much more Markovi\u0107.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Darcie Dennigan,<\/strong> author of Madame X<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the hands of the brilliant translators, Maja Teref and Steven Teref, Serbian poet Milena Markovi\u0107\u2019s ambivalence about her hedonist and raucous \u201csex, drugs, and rock \u2019n\u2019 roll\u201d\u00a0youth\u2014\u201cI dread the past \/ and sometimes yearn for it\u201d\u2014spirals wider and deeper into meditations on restlessness and recklessness throughout a lifetime. We need to take risks to stay alive, grow, and transform, even as doing so comes with dangers from without and from the self\u2019s inclination to self-harm. Some of my favorite poems in this gritty and witty collection are the ones about the speaker\u2019s devotion to food, which is perhaps the older self\u2019s compromise with the younger.\u00a0Many of these poems are epicurean, epistolary, elegiac, brutal, and tender in surprising turns\u2014\u201cis there anything more beautiful \/ than roast piglet.\u201d For English language readers in the 21<\/span>st<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0Century, this collection is a must.\u00a0It builds hyperlocal worlds, defamiliarizing to those of us in the so-called West, but simultaneously manifests hybrid, global worlds. The speakers allude to English language literature and the rhythms and icons of American popular culture, while challenging \u2018us\u2019 to see past our blind spots. Grab yourself a copy and hold on for the ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014Virginia Bell<\/strong>, Editor of\u00a0RHINO Poetry<\/i>,\u00a0and author of\u00a0Lifting Child from the Ground, Turning Around<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milena Markovi\u0107<\/a>
\ntranslated by Steven Teref<\/a> & Maja Teref<\/a>
\nsympathy for the salami <\/em>9781956921298
\n“…a vivid, honest, often funny, sometimes disturbing voice… [which] confronts her life more directly than most of us have the courage to do.” \u2014Susanna Lang.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[236,17],"product_tag":[283,463,461,18,383,26,276,462,503],"class_list":{"0":"post-15006","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-books","7":"product_cat-dialogos","8":"product_tag-bilingual","9":"product_tag-maja-teref","10":"product_tag-milena-markovic","11":"product_tag-poetry","12":"product_tag-poetry-translation","13":"product_tag-serbia","14":"product_tag-serbian","15":"product_tag-steven-teref","16":"product_tag-wit","18":"first","19":"instock","20":"featured","21":"taxable","22":"shipping-taxable","23":"purchasable","24":"product-type-simple","25":"berocket_lgv_grid","26":"berocket_lgv_list_grid"},"yoast_head":"\nsympathy for the salami - Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"sympathy for the salami - Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Milena Markovi\u0107 translated by Steven Teref & Maja Teref sympathy for the salami 9781956921298 "...a vivid, honest, often funny, sometimes disturbing voice... [which] confronts her life more directly than most of us have the courage to do." \u2014Susanna Lang.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lavenderinkdialogos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-25T09:20:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lavender_ink_pr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/\",\"name\":\"sympathy for the salami - Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-01T19:03:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-25T09:20:48+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Shop\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"sympathy for the salami\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/\",\"name\":\"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos\",\"description\":\"Publisher of Contemporary Poetry and Literary Prose\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cityscape-800.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cityscape-800.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":183,\"caption\":\"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lavenderinkdialogos\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/lavender_ink_pr\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"sympathy for the salami - Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"sympathy for the salami - Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos","og_description":"Milena Markovi\u0107 translated by Steven Teref & Maja Teref sympathy for the salami 9781956921298 \"...a vivid, honest, often funny, sometimes disturbing voice... [which] confronts her life more directly than most of us have the courage to do.\" \u2014Susanna Lang.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/","og_site_name":"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lavenderinkdialogos\/","article_modified_time":"2025-08-25T09:20:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@lavender_ink_pr","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/","url":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/","name":"sympathy for the salami - Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg","datePublished":"2024-07-01T19:03:34+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-25T09:20:48+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/makovic-cover72dpi.jpg","width":600,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/sympathy-for-the-salami\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shop","item":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"sympathy for the salami"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/","name":"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos","description":"Publisher of Contemporary Poetry and Literary Prose","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#organization","name":"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos","url":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cityscape-800.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/cityscape-800.jpg","width":800,"height":183,"caption":"Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lavenderinkdialogos\/","https:\/\/x.com\/lavender_ink_pr"]}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/15006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/15006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=15006"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=15006"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=15006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}