Biljana Dojčinović, director of the upcoming June 2018 Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference in Belgrade, Serbia, assigned two of her graduate students the task of finding out more about Updike’s visit to the city back in 1978, when it was still a part of Yugoslavia.

Sanja Sudar researched newspaper and magazine articles describing Updike’s visit; Nemanja Glintić researched documents of the Writers Union, especially pertaining to how Updike came to be invited and what the itinerary was like for the visiting writers. Colleagues from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade translated the students’ reports into English.

“I hope this will be interesting reading,” Dojčinović said. Complete conference registration information will be made available within the next several weeks, but with interest running high the society wanted to share the students’ research right away, with gratitude to both of them and their translators:

“Updike in Belgrade: (Until) 1978,” written by Sanja Sudar and translated by Milica Abramović, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

“The Narrative Report: The Association of Serbian Writers Preparations for the 15th International Writers October Summit in Belgrade in 1978 — John Updike,” written by Nemanja Glintić and translated by Anja Radić, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

The above photo is a screen capture from a media clip of the interview conducted at the Writers Union in 1978, reprinted here courtesy of RTS (Radio and TV Serbia). The full clip can be seen at the society’s Facebook page.

Fifth Biennial John Updike Society Conference Call for Papers