Reading the Body
January 22nd, 2026 | by Maria Olujic
A cousin, swollen with her third child, stood still while the women circled her like a secret
About Maria Olujic
Maria Olujic
Maria B. Olujic, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and writer who emigrated from communist Yugoslavia to the United States as a child and later returned to serve in Croatia’s wartime government. She writes about gendered violence, inherited silence, and the stories women’s bodies carry across borders and generations. Her work appears or is forthcoming in AGNI, Brevity, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, HerStry, 100 Word Story, and more. She is completing a memoir about war, womanhood, and witnessing. www.mariaolujic.com