Project description: The Initiative for Equality, Innovation and Social Engagement (IRIDA) is a youth organization founded in Novi Sad in 2018. It advocates for a society in which young women and men live as equals, free from violence, are able to realize their goals and potential, and actively contribute to a culture of equality and non-violence. As part of its broader project This Too Is Violence (I ovo je nasilje), IRIDA organized an online creative writing course focused on producing short stories about sexual harassment. Twenty young people, aged 15 to 30, from across Serbia successfully completed the course and wrote original short stories that were compiled into the publication This Too Is Violence: Short Stories About Sexual Harassment (I ovo je nasilje – kratke priče o seksualnom uznemiravanju). This publication represents the organization’s second anthology. IRIDA’s first publication, This Too Is Violence: Short Stories About Psychological Violence in Intimate Relationships (I ovo je nasilje – kratke priče o seksualnom uznemiravanju ), released the previous year, encountered a number of publishing challenges that resulted in a final edition insufficiently prepared for wider commercial distribution. In response, IRIDA engaged publishing expert Jasmina Radojičić, who has more than ten years of professional experience in the publishing sector, to mentor the organization through the manuscript preparation and publication process.
Through a structured job-shadowing programme, members of the IRIDA team acquired practical knowledge and professional skills related to editing and preparing manuscripts for publication. The training covered every stage of the publishing process, including workflow planning, timelines, communication with editors, designers, proofreaders, printers, and other publishing professionals, as well as the knowledge required to successfully position and distribute a publication on the book market.
Grant amount: 280,000.00 RSD
