Monika Herceg (1990) was born in Sisak, Croatia and studied Physics at the University of Rijeka. She won second prize in the international poetry contest Castelo di Duino in 2016. In 2017, her poetry collection Početne Koordinate (Initial Coordinates) won the Goran Prize for Young Poets. The actual book was published in 2018 to critical acclaim and recently won the Kvirin and Franc Galović prizes, rendering it one of the most award-winning works in contemporary Croatian poetry. Her sophomore book also won the 2018 Na vrh Jezika Prize for best poetry submission and was subsequently released in 2019. She currently lives and composes in Zagreb.