“Everything she learned about poetry,- she learned from me!” - Allen Ginsberg at Nina’s reading at the Anseo’s bar, NY 1993, three months before his death.
“Nina Zivancevic, a prominent Serbian poet, scholar, and translator, lived in lower Manhattan prior to the outbreak of the war in Sarajevo in 1992. Faced with the complete blockade of information in the West about the situation in her country, she has no choice but to become actively involved in its comprehension, but without promoting the cause of a particular party or faction. What strikes her most is not the difference between nations and cultures, but the underlying similarity of people and places.” - Dawn-Michelle Baude, writer, journalist, Free Voice, Paris.
“She writes poetry we should all be writing if we were possessed of those strong Adriatic-Atlantic Wings. Among us bilingual guerrillas, she is the chief flame-maker.” - Andrei Codrescu, distinguished international poet and US radio commentator.
“Nina Zivancevic is one of the most interesting and original young poets in Eastern Europe, the part of the world where some of the best poetry today is being written.” - Charles Simic, one of the finest living American poets.
“(Ce recueil est celui d'une) poète dont le rayonnement en langue serbe, reflète la grande actualité d'une œuvre poétique radicalement novatrice. Une œuvre qui interpelle les ressources invisibles de la langue française.” - Jean-Pierre Faye, contemporary French poet and philosopher, Paris.
“Nina is Serbia's true Punk Laureate. Nina stands over the mike stand. She reads in Serbian but the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Every face in the room, all the generations, all the clans, every subculture representative, is trained on her… Nina pushes her words way beyond Acker and Ginsberg to a place all her own. The punk metaphysicist! Other civilisations and their attendant cultures seep through the city walls of her poems. Faded brocade ruffles hang from under the sleeves of cracked black leather jackets.” Johny Brown, renowned British poet and playwright, Radio Resonance, London.
“Nina Zivancevic has a huge compassion, and a wisdom mind-stream." - John Giorno, American performance poet, New York.