Finalist: 2025 Travel Story Contest with The Preservation Foundation

A nickname for Bosnia and Herzegovina is The Heart Shaped Land because of its shape. For me, it’s because the place, the people, its history, and its resilience gripped my heart immediately and have never let go.

It’s hard for me to separate the details of war and government from this trip and my education, and much of my writing about my short time there and my study of genocide and post-war reconstruction is more potent. However, for this piece, I wanted to convey the surreal juxtapositions I observed and felt there, between the remnant realities of their gruesome history and the beauty and warmth of the place and the people.

This contest was open only to unpublished authors. You can find my submission, The Heart Shaped Land, and many other travel essays here.

For those interested in learning more about the war itself, which I encourage, I recommend these books: Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia (non-fiction); A Problem From Hell: America in an Age of Genocide (non-fiction); The Cellist of Sarajevo (historical fiction); and Pretty Birds (fiction).