Official licensed name: Mili Dueli
Format: International Online Poetry Contest
Founded: 2012
Country of origin: 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Host City: Jajce
Founder: Nermin Delic
Countries where it currently operates: 112
Zvanično licencirano ime: Mili Dueli
Format: Internacionalni online contest poezije
Godina utemeljenja: 2012.
Zemlja porijekla: 
Bosna i Hercegovina
Grad-domaćin: Jajce
Osnivač: Nermin Delić
Države u kojima trenutno dejstvuje: 112
ABOUT US
O NAMA
Mili Dueli (eng. Sweet Duels) is the most popular online poetry contest in the region. The founder of the contest is Nermin Delić, a young Bosnian writer from Jajce. Contest was founded in 2012, as a desire of a seventeen-year-old young man to change the existing situation in the community. Although the 21st century came, the Balkans continued to be a litter of international and inter-religious intolerance. Contest is the young man’s desire to correct misconceptions.Contest is also a response to the difficult post-war situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mili Dueli (eng. Sweet Duels) je najpopularniji online kontest poezije u regionu. Osnivač kontesta je Nermin Delić, mladi bosanskohercegovački književnik iz Jajca. Kontest je osnovan 2012. godine, kao želja sedamnaestogodišnjeg mladića da promijeni postojeće stanje u zajednici. Iako je nastupilo 21. stoljeće, prostor Balkana i dalje je leglo međunarodne i međureligijske netolerancije. Kontest je želja mladića da umjetnošću ispravi krive Drine.Također, kontest je i odgovor na teško poslijeratno stanje u Bosni i Hercegovini.
About the name
The name Mili Dueli / eng. Sweet Duels refers to a duel in kindness, in beautiful words and in tolerance. The first word indicates a poet, and the second word indicates a competition in fine writing.
Contest colors
The official colors on the Contest logo are white, blue and red as the colors of the former Yugoslavia. The logo shows four hands of different colors. Blue and red indicate the competitive part of the contest. Two blue hands indicate the author who is passing on, and the red hands indicate the author who does not pass further. The hands are crossed, as a sign of support. Different hand colors also indicate the different racial background of the participants.White background indicates neutrality and purity.
Contest organization
The founder of the Contest is also the Contest Organizer. Through the competition section, the authors present themselves in five elimination rounds. In each round, the authors submit new poems where poets compete with poems in virtually created duels. The evaluation of the poems is subordinated to the decisions of an international jury. The jury is composed of renowned artists from the Balkan region and the diaspora, and winners of earlier seasons. What makes the Contest different from all other international poetry competitions is that readers who follow the Contest also have a role in the decision who will be the winner. The readership of Balkan poetry has increased dramatically, and the number of our active followers is increasing.
The part dedicated to socializing and promoting international cooperation relates to the so-called “online bridges” that are being built among artists in the region. Contest places the artist as a model of behavior in the community.
Contest is organized by seasons. Seasons have been organized every summer, since 2012. In the period up to 2020, the Contest hosted over 2,000 authors from around 40 countries. By 2024, there was a large expansion of the number of participating countries, so that in 2024, cooperation with authors from 104 countries from the last season, and a total of 112 countries of the world, has been achieved since the beginning of the contest. The poetry blog and official website have been visited over two million times, and over 10,000 poems have been presented at the contest so far.
Our goals
The main goal of the project is to fight hate speech in the Balkans. We focus on the propagation of literature with an emphasis on poetry and the near-disappearing public literary criticism in the Balkans.
During our work in the contest, the project Mili Dueli has attracted worldwide attention. In 2018, Mili Dueli entered the TOP 5 youth projects in Europe in the category Connecting Cultures (EYA Festival, Salzburg, Austria). That same year, the world’s most famous business magazine – American Forbes, wrote about the project. In Forbes’s article, the Mili Duels were officially declared the most popular online poetry contest in the Balkans. The whole project was inspired by the idea of the founder Delic. For his idea and realization of the project, he was awarded the UNESCO Peace Prize by The Goi Peace Foundation in Japan, and the “Genius of the Year” award at the Man of the Year in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2018. In 2019, in North Macedonia, for his poetry and engagement in Mili Dueli, he received the “International Poet of the Region” award.
Today, the Contest has the most authentic and fundamental approach to poetry in the Balkans, with participants from all over the world.
Contest is welcomed by all affirmed and non-affirmed authors of poetry, regardless of national, national, age, racial or any affiliation.
O nazivu
Naziv Mili Dueli upućuje na duel u dobroti, u lijepim riječima i toleranciji. Prva riječ označava pjesnika, a druga riječ upućuje na takmičenje u lijepom pisanju.
Boje kontesta
Oficijalne boje na logu kontesta su bijela, plava i crvena kao boje nekadašnje Jugoslavije. Na logu je prikazane četiri ruke različitih boja. Različite boje ruku upućuju na različitu rasnu pripadnost učesnika. Plava i crvena boja također upućuju na takmičarski dio kontesta. Dvije plave ruke označavaju autora koji prolazi dalje, a crvene ruke označavaju autora koji ne prolazi dalje. Ruke su ukrštene, kao znak podrške. Bijela podloga označava neutralnost i čistoću.
Organizacija kontesta
Osnivač kontesta je i organizator kontesta. Kroz takmičarski dio, autori se predstavljaju u pet eliminacionih krugova. U svakom krugu, autori šalju nove pjesme gdje se pjesnici nadmiljavaju pjesmama u virtualno kreiranim duelima. Vrednovanje pjesama je podređeno odlukama internacionalnog žirija sastavljenog od renomiranih umjetnika balkanske regije i dijaspore, te pobjednika ranijih sezona. Ono po čemu se kontest razlikuje od svih ostalih međunarodnih takmičenja poezije, jeste i to što udio u odluci o pobjednicima nose i čitaoci koji prate kontest. Čitanost poezije je izrazito povećana, a broj redovnih pratilaca kontesta je sve veći.
Dio posvećen druženju i promociji međunarodne saradnje, odnosi se na tzv. „online bridges“ koji se grade među umjetnicima regiona. Kontest stavlja u prvi plan umjetnika kao model ponašanja u društvenoj zajednici i nekoga ko bi trebao poslužiti kao uzor svojim narodima.
Kontest je organizovan po sezonama koje se organizuju svakoga ljeta, od 2012. godine. U tom periodu, do 2020. godine, kontest je ugostio preko 2 000 autora, iz oko 40 zemalja svijeta. Do 2024. godine dolazi do velike ekspanzije broja zemalja-učesnica, tako da je u 2024. godini ostvarena saradnja sa autorima iz 104 zemlje svijeta, a ukupno 112 zemalja svijeta otpočetka kontesta. Blog poezije i oficijalna stranica su posjećeni preko dva miliona puta, a na kontestu je prikazano do sada preko 10 000 pjesama.
Naši ciljevi
Cilj projekta je prvenstveno borba protiv govora mržnje na Balkanu, te propagacija književnosti sa akcentom na poeziju i zamrlu javnu književnu kritiku na Balkanu.
Projekat je u sedam godina svog rada izazvao pažnju svijeta. U 2018. godini je ušao u TOP 5 projekata mladih u Evropi u kategoriji Povezivanje kultura (EYA Festival, Salzburg, Austria). Iste godine je o njemu pisao najčuveniji poslovni magazin svijeta – američki Forbes. U Forbes-ovom članku, Mili Dueli su i zvanično proglašeni najpopularnijim online kontestom poezije na Balkanu. Cijeli projekt je inspirisan idejom osnivača Delića, a on je za ideju i realizaciju projekta, nagrađen UNESCO priznanjem za mir od strane The Goi Peace Foundation u Tokiju, te nagradom „Genije Godine“ na Izboru muškarca godine BiH 2018. U Sjevernoj Makedoniji je 2019. godine, za svoju poeziju i angažman u Milim Duelima dobio nagradu „Međunarodni pjesnik regiona“.
Danas kontest ima najmjerodavniji i najtemeljniji pristup poeziji na Balkanu, a ima učesnike iz svih dijelova svijeta.
Na kontest su dobrodošli svi afirmisani i neafirmisani autori poezije, bez obzira na nacionalnu, narodnu, dobnu, rasnu ili bilo koju pripadnost.