Nina Živančević is a Serbian-born poet, playwright, and fiction writer whose work moves between the experimental, the underground, and the avant-garde. As a young poet she apprenticed with Allen Ginsberg, and her forty-year literary career has been celebrated in a major retrospective at the Serbian Cultural Institute in Paris, where she is based.

New York City Jail & Other Stories gathers Živančević’s fiction into a powerful, uncompromising collection. These stories centre on unconventional female protagonists who move through extreme spaces—prison cells, underground scenes, and charged inner worlds—without surrendering their intelligence, humour, eroticism, or capacity to love. Fierce, lucid, and deeply human, the book offers a libertarian feminist vision that is both raw and unforgettable.

Published in September 2023

ISBN 978-1-9164212-8-8

Price (UK shipping) £12.99

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REVIEW BY Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

A selection of short stories entitled New York City Jail & Other Stories ( Carnaval  Press, London)by acclaimed poet and writer Nina Zivancevic  explores that element which connects and separates us as she stretches the reader between the two poles. With uncanny insight, and not without humor, she offers a portal into the psyche of her many diverse characters who have in common the dilemma of searching for something which is hidden in plain sight. The irony of life is never wasted on Zivancevic, nor is the paradox of choice.

New York City Jail, a raw and gritty tale of women behind bars, is narrated with brazen abandonment, steeped in vivid imagery that smacks of a sensational screenplay. Prostitutes who sell themselves…short. Used, abused and controlled by men, soon to be released from one cage only to find themselves in yet another– ”the poverty of our caged existence” Petty and not so petty thieves who must compete for stolen moments. One such tender moment is illustrated by the spent woman who rests her head in another prisoner’s ”ample lap” Not exactly the lap of luxury, and, yet, we are reminded that love is something money can’t buy

In The Inseparable Ones, a parakeet named Orpheus, flies the coop–so to speak– and finds himself uncared for in the limitless sky of the Unknown. But wouldn’t we rather see him safe at home in his cage (with his lover Eurydice) where he is loved and cared for? It prompts the question…what is captivity and what is freedom?

The duality continues in The Animal...between the hunter and the hunted. Are we not both?  In Rock and Roll Star, our star is forever hunting. A star, who can light up the stage, yet must search for drugs and other illusions that she’s hidden from the darkest part of herself,  is ‘’ always in search of herself,’ What is scarier than being locked inside one’s own mind?

Back in the heart of New York City with War Sex Money, our characters, who are at war with one another, work in the same office but definitely ride different elevators. Nina is faced with choosing the life of a sparrow over money and sex.

“It has to do with empathy, with respect for life!” 

And, that is it in a nutshell. At the core of all her stories seems to be the desire for an enlightened humanity. The element of understanding and kindness that shines in the dark, are reminding us that love leads the way.. A collection that like life, itself, is both strange and wonderful, one that should never be taken for granted. These are stories which are sure to resonate long after the reader has enjoyed each and every last line.