Balkan Boss Babe: Adela Muhic

Where I’m From: Bratunac, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Current Hometown: Bowling Green, Kentucky

Favorite Balkan Song: Okay so I couldn’t pick just one: “Rodjen Spreman” by Baja and “Je L’ Sarajevo Gdje Je Nekad Bilo” by Dino Merlin are my favorite two songs.

Favorite Balkan Dish: My mom makes the best burek ever!

Can you tell us a little bit more about the inspiration behind your book, “Boxed Memories”?

I struggle a little with what to say whenever somebody asks me this question. Everything around me inspired this book. I have a whole section in here that I wrote about my best friend Amra, pages about my brother, even a couple pages that I wrote about whatever I dreamed of the night before. My past experiences influenced the majority of this. The whole purpose of this book was to finally confront everything that I’ve tried to hide from. Anytime something would happen to me, good or bad, I’d write it down on anything I could find and then I would shove it into some memory boxes I have under my bed. This book is compiled of my feelings for probably about the past 3-4 years.

When did you start writing? Has it always been one of your passions? 

I’ve been in love with reading and writing for as long as I can remember. It’s just something about how an author can make you experience a million different feelings just by reading a couple chapters that drew me into this. I started taking writing a bit more seriously when I was in high school and really focused on trying to better myself at it. I’ve probably annoyed every single one of my english teachers by the amount of times I would ask them to read over some short stories I would write. Whenever I was in my senior year of high school, I kind of stopped writing and pushed it to the side while preparing for college and focusing on what I wanted my major to be, which I kind of regret. Before entering my second year of college I just kind of realized there’s no need to put my passion to the side for any reason whatsoever. Writing is what always saved me from anything going on in my life and it’s healthy to have something to shift my focus to and take the stress off of school.

If you had to choose, which poem from “Boxed Memories” is your favorite and why?

I would say page 89 is my favorite poem:

“that burden i once carried

that weighed heavy on my tired heart

is now gone

and i’m finally letting peace come in

and settle down in her new home

-stay”

This is the first thing I wrote as soon as I was able to overcome my depression. It was so random, I woke up at 4am one day and the words just flowed out of me and into my journal and then I was able to go back to sleep with a clear mindset.

I think anybody that’s dealt with depression can agree that it feels like there’s literally something in your chest weighing your heart down and giving you all kinds of anxiety throughout the day. To finally have that burden lifted off of you, is a feeling I can’t even begin to describe and something I am so thankful for.

I also think if I had to pick one poem to describe the whole book, this would be it. It’s kind of saying that the bad is gone and the good is here to stay. That’s what this whole book is about: me being able to confront my past and say goodbye to it, and look forward to my future. I’m also sort of referencing to “peace” as an actual person; the new me. That’s why I say I’m letting “her” settle down and asking “her” to stay. I hope I always stay at peace with myself.

What was the process like for publishing your book? Can you talk us through how it came into fruition? 

I had two options: either publish through a publishing house and give up some of my creative control or self publish the book the exact way that I wanted it. Granted if I had gone with a publishing house it would have definitely gotten more exposure, but I didn’t like any ideas that were pitched to me. Especially for me being a new author and this is my first work, I didn’t really have the credibility to sit there and call all the shots with these companies that know what they’re doing.

After a couple weeks of going back and forth, I eventually just decided I didn’t want anybody changing my words or formatting this a different way, so self publishing through Amazon was what I decided to do. I was able to literally format the manuscript any way that I wanted and I didn’t have someone telling me what poems to take out and what to insert instead. I did get some really good advice from some of these companies that I did put to use.

Anybody looking to self publish I would 100% recommend Amazon KDP, the process is very easy and they’ll work with you throughout any questions you have. Some of the most well-known poets right now like Rupi Kaur and R.H. Sin do self publishing as well. Milk and Honey, which has been dominating since 2015, was first self published because she wanted all the creative control. So, if you’re unsure where to start and don’t know if a publishing house is right for you, definitely research and consider self publishing. 

How do you deal with negativity or any ‘nay-sayers’?

Send love their way. Speaking as somebody that once used to be filled with hate and negativity, I know how it is, and they’re just coming from a hurt place. There’s nothing wrong with being a broken person, everybody will be at some point and will have to learn from it. The way I look at it is they’re just going through something and learning from it. Looking back on how I used to be and what I would say to people and about people, it’s insane. The issue was never other people and what they were doing, it was always me. I wasn’t happy with myself so I’d take it out on others. For the longest time I always thought everything needed to be responded to, especially the negativity. I knew I had grown once I realized not everything needs a reaction and to just ignore it.

What advice do you have for other Balkan women going after their dreams? 

So I’m kind of bad at giving advice when it comes to that because I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing, which is perfectly fine by the way. All I would say is: nobody is going to know you as well as you know yourself. You know what you want to do, you know how to get there, you know what you need to do… now you just have to go out and do it.

The main thing that was stopping me from pursuing this was the fact that I was scared it wasn’t going to be good enough. I was scared that I poured out all of my feelings publicly for the first time ever and that it would be rejected by everybody. There is nothing more terrifying than putting your art on display for other people. After I overcame that fear of not being good enough, I just mapped out a plan for myself where I wanted to be and what steps I needed to take in order to get there.

When I really put my mind to it, it took me a short amount of time to accomplish the goals I had listed for myself. I’m still not exactly where I want to be, and that’s okay. We need to normalize that it’s perfectly fine if you have to adjust your timeline for any reason whatsoever, sometimes things don’t go as planned and that’s okay.

Keep up with Adela on Instagram @4dela

You can find “Boxed Memories” at these retailers below.

Amazon

Target

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