Bio
Vesna Kurilić is a historical fantasy writer and werewolf-loving, skirt-making librarian. Her main literary focus is reclaiming local history on behalf of non-binary, queer folks like herself, and making it accessible and relatable to readers. A native and resident of Rijeka, Croatia, she’s the author of the queer retrofuturistic mystery series Ranger Paraversum.
Other than history, architecture and sapphic ladies, she’s passionate about playing sci-fi movie songs on the ukulele and doing jigsaw puzzles. For tips and tricks on writing and inside info, check out her blog, Skirts’n’Wolves. To get in touch, find Vesna on Twitter and Facebook or come meet the resident furry (and clawy) writer’s assistants over at her Instagram.
Fiction
Vesna Kurilić started writing with short stories back in the mid-nineties, and publishing short fiction in mid-2000s. Some of her more recent stories are available online in English and Croatian, including her short, bloody and geeky M/M cosplay story, The Gentleman.
Her first novel, published in Croatian in 2017, Izazov krvi, combined with her love of local history and her art history diploma, paved the way for her current retrofuturistic queer mystery series Ranger Paraversum (more here).
She has earned three SFERA awards (2012, 2014 and 2018) and one Artefakt (2018) for her fiction and multimedia projects (Larp “Astra”).
Non-fiction
Vesna’s blog, Skirts’n’Wolves, started as a larping advice and geek life central, and gradually turned into all things writing—mostly articles on how to keep motivated as a writer in the long run and what to do when said motivation runs out.
As a librarian, she has written a couple dozen insider columns Stranica 33 (Page 33) for the library she grew up in, in Croatian, collected here.
Collabs
Vesna is the co-founder of and she currently works alongside Antonija Mežnarić as an editor and publisher at the Croatian small press Shtriga, where she’s copyedited and helped edit several novels, novellas and collections.
On the home front, she’s the co-founder and co-editor of the Croatian online magazine for speculative fiction Morina kutija, with Antonija Mežnarić and Igor Rendić, and there’s even a writing podcast (in Croatian) there!
She was one of the co-founders and editors for the project Decameron 2020: Priče iz Karantene, with Antonija Mežnarić and Ana Cerovac, which was listed as a recommended online resource by the Croatian Ministry of Culture during 2020.
Vesna Kurilic 