VENTURA : Yugoslav Writer Scheduled to Speak

A renowned Yugoslav poet and playwright who stayed in Sarajevo long after the war broke out will talk about life in his homeland at the World Affairs Council of Ventura County on Wednesday.

Goran Simic also will receive a PEN Center USA Freedom-to-Write Award Saturday at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Born in Bosnia on Oct. 29, 1952, Simic was one of Yugoslavia’s most famous writers even before the war broke out.

While his city was being shelled, he remained in Sarajevo with his Moslem wife and two children and continued to write and operate the Bosnian PEN Center, which he opened with several other writers in October, 1992.

Simic’s “Sarajevo Sorrow,” a collection of poems detailing life in the war zone, has been published in many European countries.

In a commentary for the Sarajevo daily newspaper Oslobodjente, Simic called the city a place where “extremists are shelling the town so heavily that the death from a shell is considered a ‘natural death.’ ” Simic’s family finally fled the shelling last January. They now reside in Bari, Italy, while waiting to immigrate to Canada.

Tickets for Simic’s speech at the World Affairs Council, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Tower Club in Oxnard, are $18 for members, $22 for non-members and $28 at the door. For details, call 449-9953.