Katarina Gotic Damiani is a Bosnian-born poet dwelling in the in-between: between poetry and conceptual art, learned and her mother tongue(s), Bosnia and Germany, between now and then and then and further then.
Katarina is the author of two poetry collections, we need a breathing tongue between (kith books, 2024) and leerlauf (2025), as well as several visual and performance pieces, all rooted in language.
She has received numerous grants and awards for her work, including the 2023 Work Stipend for Non-German Literature and the 2024 Research Scholarship for Translators awarded by the Berlin Senate. She has exhibited and performed extensively in both Bosnia and Germany.
She lives in Berlin.
What brought you to Berlin? Love? World politics? Or was it a coincidence?
The need to leave Tübingen. To Tübingen, the need to leave Bosnia.
What do you love about Berlin?
options / options / our flat / options / how languages mix / options / so much space / people / options / art / experiments / being a poet and surviving
What do you miss in Berlin?
Bosnian humour / creative swearing / mountains / mother / spontaneous encounters / reading hope from coffee grounds / nicknames we’re forever stuck with / red threads that protect kids from evil eyes / roasted chestnuts / river Sava / quince / rose hip / cherry plum / rakija from every cellar
What is your favorite spot in Berlin?
Spreeufer in Moabit for daily outings, Westhafen for desolate industrial landscapes (and almost being at sea), "Kühlspot" und "Sowieso" for jazz and Echtzeitmusik, Stadtbad Charlottenburg (Alte Halle) for forgetting the world
Would you say you are a different person in Berlin? A different translator? And if yes, in what way?
Berlin let me become a poet. Bosnia gave me all I can write about.
Which existing literary work do you wish you had written?
"My Life", Lyn Hejinian.
2025. Secondary Archive. Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation (Warszawa, PL), Visegrad Fund (Bratislava, SK), Association of citizens Obojena klapa (Sarajevo, B&H)
2024. "Mijenadaha" Research Scholarship for Translators. Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Berlin, Germany
2024. "leerlauf" Sarajevo Photography Festival: Conceptual Photography Award. Sarajevo Photography Festival, Sarajevo, B&H
2023. "leerlauf" Work Stipend for non-German Literature. Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, Berlin, Germany
2023. "VENAC" Pop Art Festival Award. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2023. "Otkazna Pisma" ZVONO Award. KRAK (Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Residency Unlimited (New York, USA), Trust for Mutual Understanding (New York, USA)
