We're happy to welcome Sofija Stefanovic, a popular storyteller for The Moth and host of New York literary salons Women of Letters and This Alien Nation, for a reading and signing of her new memoir, Miss Ex-Yugoslavia. 

About the book:

When she was five, Sofija’s family left their beloved home in Belgrade, Yugoslavia for Melbourne, Australia. Coming of age during the Yugoslavian wars and moving to a country that her mother deemed “the asshole of the world” would be difficult for any child, let alone someone who is a fish-out-of-water by nature. Sofija’s early life is filled with inadvisable crushes, Yugo rock, and all the perks of a socialist existence, but her homeland is soon besieged by blackouts, gasoline shortages, and ethnic tensions stoked by totalitarian leaders. Sofija’s family moves to Australia – with its blue skies, giant spiders, and strange community of transplanted Yugos. Sofija struggles to find her place in this new world in the shadow of a violent conflict, in a country that makes no sense to her family. 

Told in a page-turning style, and packed with laugh-out-loud anecdotes, Miss Ex-Yugoslavia captures a universal story of an outsider looking for home. Revealing war and immigration from the crucial viewpoint of women and children, Stefanovic offers a window to a complicated culture that she both cherishes and resents. Refreshingly candid, vulnerable, and poignant, Sofija Stefanovic’s memoir is an important new voice in the canon of immigrant literature.