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Sofija Stefanovic Sofija Stefanovic i(A69573 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Sofija Stefanovic is a Serbian-born, Australian-grown writer living in New York. She writes for print, TV and film and is a founding faculty member of The School of Life Australia.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Miss Ex-Yugoslavia New York (City) : Atria Books , 2018 12305194 2018 single work autobiography

'In the tradition of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, a funny, dark, and tender coming-of-age memoir about life as a perpetual fish-out-of-water, from the Yugoslavian-born comedic storyteller, MothStorySLAM favorite, and host of the Women of Letters literary salon.

'Sofija Stefanovic makes the first of many awkward entrances in 1982, born in Yugoslavia just as her communist country begins to crumble. The circumstances of her birth (a blackout, gasoline shortages, bickering parents) don't exactly get her off to a running start. While around her ethnic tensions are being stoked by hotheaded totalitarian leaders with violent agendas, Sofija's early years are filled with rock music, inadvisable crushes, micro-miniskirts whose Serbian name means "to the pussy," and enough insecurity to sink a Croatian submarine.

'In 1988 her parents finally decide to flee to Australia, where Sofija ditches ESL class, experiments with bad hairstyles, and makes out with her bedroom mirror for practice. As conflicts escalate back home, her parents are glued to the nightly news, anxious for loved ones, homesick, clinging to their insular community. While her father toils at work and her eloquent mother is relegated to the bungled speech of a foreigner, Sofija is eager to find acceptance among her friends, going to hilarious lengths to hide her morbid, unassimilated family.

'But everything comes to a screeching halt with the sudden illness of her father, unseating concerns about assimilation and the situation back home, rupturing Sofija's universe as she prepares to embark out on her own for the first time.

'In Miss Ex-Yugoslavia, Sofija offers us a window inside a beleaguered culture that she both cherishes and resents, capturing the experience of not quite connecting with your old country, and yet never quite being embraced by your new one. Both refreshingly candid and wonderfully vulnerable, Miss Ex-Yugoslavia will stay with you for a long time.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2019 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Multicultural NSW Award
2019 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Award for Non-Fiction
2019 inaugural winner National Biography Award Michael Crouch Award for a Debut Work
2019 shortlisted National Biography Award Shortlisted for the primary award as well as winning the Michael Crouch Award.
y separately published work icon You're Just Too Good to Be True Melbourne : Penguin , 2015 8695455 2015 single work prose

'Sofija Stefanovic visits her eighty-year-old friend Bill and suspects he's being scammed over the internet – not for the first time. Compelled by Bill's devastating stories of online dating, heartbreak and bankruptcy, Sofija gets drawn into the underworld of romance scams. Her investigations take her to victims, experts and ultimately to her computer, where she uses a dead relative's photo to set up her own senior's dating profile. In the hope of interviewing a scammer, Sofija wades into murky territory as her lies grow and her online relationships get personal. As she moves through this confusing world, Sofija finds herself confronted by questions about loneliness, love and greed.

'You're Just Too Good To Be True is a sometimes very funny and sometimes desperately poignant investigation into the dark underside of love in the digital age.' (Publication summary)

2016 shortlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel
Last amended 2 Jul 2015 09:34:45
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