ENNIS ĆEHIĆ
Writer
Melbourne / Sarajevo
1984
BOOKS
SADVERTISING (2022)
My debut collection of stories published by Penguin Random House in Australia / New Zealand and Buybook in Bosnia & Herzegovina, translated by Jovana Šego.
More info here
Buy paperback
Buy ebook
Buy audiobook
Buy Jadvertajzing (Bosnian Translation)
NEW METONYMS (2020)
Created in collaboration with photographer, Shantanu Starick, New Metonyms is a limited edition book that offers a poetic survey of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s contemporary landmarks, monuments and cultural signifiers through photography and writing.
Buy here
Read a review
REVIEWS, PRESS & INTERVIEWS
’This satire of capitalism and marketing is so close to the bone it's tough to know where the truth stops. These are caustic insider pieces from the frontlines of social media, branding and offices... they read like jokes but come from knowledge, not knowingness.’
The Sun Herald, 23/07/2022
‘Sadvertising is an utterly unique reading experience. Whether you work in advertising or not, this is an astute reflection of the ways consumerism, capitalism and the entire notion of branding are at crosshairs - and collaboration - with art and creativity. Superbly blending technological surrealism with mythical elements, this is as slick and smart as they come.'
Aniko Press, 13/06/2022
‘Ennis Cehic's debut collection Sadvertising teems with lives saturated by ads in a sinister loop of fun and games.’
Sydney Review of Books, 06/06/2022
It's tempting to reach for "satire" when describing a book like Sadvertising, but it doesn't quite fit the bill. The stories that Cehic presents here are absurdist entertainments more than they are withering calls to arms. And while the stories from adland tend to read like a jeremiad about the debasement of the business, there are moments of wry observation and profundity elsewhere.’
The Canberra Times, 03/06/2022
'Powerful, inventive, and self-assured... Ennis Ćehić’s Sadvertising is an ingeniously self-reflexive and neo-surrealist collection of very short stories and micro-literature. In taut and often biting narratives, Cehic brings unexpected perspectives to the idea of advertising as powerfully manipulative... asks readers to step into richly imagined worlds where what we may believe we know is challenged, reconstructed, or subverted, sometimes strangely, sometimes in deeply salutary ways.'
Australian Book Review, 01/06/2022
'These darkly comic vignettes double as fables for our current age of splintered attention spans and pervasive corporate culture... Ćehić proves himself a natural at shorthand character work.'
The Big Issue, 28/04/2022
‘Ćehić was born in Bosnia and came to Australia, via Germany, in the mid-1990s, and in among the satire and the fantasies are glimpses of a harder reality. But then he also mocks writers who offer their own identity as, well, as a marketing ploy, not to mention readers who like to feast on tragedy (“War is sweet to those who haven’t experienced it.”). The topic is raised but he wants us to know he won’t be exploiting it. Some things aren’t for sale.’
Sydney Morning Herald, 21/04/2022
'Ennis Ćehić has done something remarkable... Sadvertising feels complete, well rounded and carefully planned and structured. The experience of reading this collection is like being completely immersed in a mind as it interrogates creativity, career and a person’s place in the world. It wanders off on delightful tangents – telling stories about related facts or drifting into the nightmare equivalent of daydreams. Sadvertising will make you laugh, it will make you pause – and maybe it will make you quit your job.'
The Saturday Paper, 16/04/2022
'Some of these short stories rank among the most inventive I have come across and the meta-fictive way that Cehic subverts the reader’s expectation of narrative voice is genuinely exciting to read. His prose is also excellent, polished and restrained... He is an exciting voice.'
Arts Hub, 22/03/2022
'Ćehić establishes each character in shorthand, in a rigorously maintained comic-serious voice, before sending them spiralling into an existential crisis or a soft sci-fi/fabulist/horror scenario. Vonnegut, Ballard and, notably, Barthelme—who makes a cameo as Mr A / Ambrose—are his stylistic predecessors.'
Kill Your Darlings, 17/03/2022
'Try to imagine a crossover between Mad Men and Black Mirror, but it’s all set in the hilariously dense awkwardness of The Office. Those are exactly the vibes that newly risen author Ennis Ćehić manages to achieve with his debut short story collection ‘Sadvertising.''
Little Black Book, 15/03/2022
'Sardonic, sharp and witty, Ennis Ćehić's Sadvertising is an electrifying examination of what it means to be alive in the modern age.'
Happy Magazine, 07/03/2022
'From brief fable-like glimpses into the amusing contradictions of workplace culture to more ambitious tales of technological futures or magical realist unrealities, each story reflects the author's relentless creativity, leaping from idea to idea, never lingering anywhere longer than necessary.'
Readings Monthly, 05/03/2022
SELECTED WRITING
Fiction
Short Shorts & Other Short Stories
(KYD: New Australian Fiction 2024) 01/09/24
Sadvertising: Batch 01
(Going Down Swinging #38 [Print Edition] 15/11/17)
Dithering
(Dialect Anthology edited by Kat Muscat, 2014)
Bananas
(FourW Anthology 22, 2011)
Non-Fiction, Reviews & Poetry
The Snowflake of Sarajevo: A Silent Designer’s Legacy
(Vogue Adria, 12/07/2024)
Nostos (Slovenian Translation)
(Lud Literatura #394, 16/04/2024)
Absurdism in an Age of Uncertainty
(Matters Journal, 14/03/ 2020)
Art is Resistance: Sejla Kameric
(Assemble Papers, 31/01/2020)
The Melancholia of Sevdah
(Meanjin, 17/09/2019)
Sarajevo: In Times of Now
(Assemble Papers #11, 24/05/2019)
Don’t Sell Me Gender
(Matters Journal, 28/06/2018)
Gratefully Displaced
(Meanjin, 04/06/2018)
Humility
(Word-Form 03/05/18)
Keeping the Faith: Bon Jovi, My Bro & Me
(Overland Literary Journal 31/01/18)
Sarajevo: Sorrow
(Kill Your Darlings, 30/05/17)
Sweatshop's Literary Dominance Takes Hold
(Lifted Brow, 10/03/17)
Creating a New Wave of Migrant Literature
(Lifted Brow, 08/09/16)
Final God (Poetry Performance)
(Emerging Writer's Festival, 15/05/15)
Against Progress (Poetry Performance)
(All the Best Radio, 15/11/14)
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
Next Chapter Fellowship (2018)
The Wheeler Centre
Melbourne, Australia
In September 2018, I became the inaugural recipient of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter Award in Australia. A 12-month program that has provided me with funding and a mentorship to develop my debut short story collection, Sadvertising.
West Writer's Group (2016)
Emerging Writers’ Festival & FCAC
Melbourne, Australia
I was a member of the West Writer's Group Program from 2014 to 2016. A collective of writers selected by the Emerging Writers' Festival and Footscray Community Arts Centre to amplify stories and voices from Melbourne’s west (where I grew up).
Global Express Workshop (2014)
Express Media
Melbourne, Australia
In 2014, I was selected to take part in Express Media's Global Express Workshop at the Wheeler Centre. A 12-month project that culminated in the launch of Dialect, a multi-lingual publication edited by Kat Muscat. Take a look at this video to learn more.
RESIDENCIES
Fondation Jan Michalski (2024)
Writer-in-Residence (11 April - 23 May)
Montricher, Switzerland
MGLC Švicarija | Swiss House (2022)
UNESCO City of Literature Residency (1-31 Sept)
Ljlubljana, Slovenia
Old Melbourne Goal | Writers Cell (2020)
Writer-in-residence (Dec 2019 - Feb 2020)
Melbourne, Australia
Varuna Writer’s House (Nov 2018)
Blue Mountains, Australia
OTHER PRESS
Knjiga “Jadvertajzing” Ennisa Ćehića: Šta se dešava u našem svijetu?
(Oslobođenje, 02/11/2023)
ABC Radio ‘The Book Shelf’ with Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh (10:21 —)
(ABC Radio National, 22/04/2023)
Silence, Brand! ‘Podcast’ with James Wilkinson
(FBi Radio, 17/04/2023)
Cleopatra’s Bling ‘Podcast’ with Olivia Cummings
(Cleopatra’s Bling, 01/03/2023)
ABC Radio ‘The Book Show’ with Claire Nichols (31:37— 38:00)
(ABC Radio National, 13/06/2022)
Interview: Emerging Writers Series with Ennis Ćehić
(Aniko Press, 13/06/2022)
ABC Radio ‘The Book Shelf’ with Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh (10:21 —)
(ABC Radio National, 07/05/2022)
Interview: Ennis Cehic on his Debut Collection of Stories
(Cheerful Worrier, 03/03/2022)
Interview: Working With Words
(The Wheeler Centre, 02/03/2022)
Ennis Cehic Makes His Literary Debut with Sadvertising
(Mumbrella, 14/01/2022)
Ennis Cehic on New Metonyms
(Sarajevo Times, 05/05/2020)
Interview: Working With Words
(The Wheeler Centre, 03/04/2020)
Interview: A Heady Brew of Beer & Storytelling
(Gabberish Magazine, 17/12/2018)