Ana Ilić

Ana Ilić (Ана Илић; born 25 December 1995) is a Serbian poet and student of philosophy from Vladičin Han.

She is one of the rare people in Serbia who suffers from Friedreich's ataxia.

By selling and promoting her poem collections, Ana is drawing public attention to people suffering from rare diseases as well as people with disabilities and collecting funds for much-needed medications for disease control.

Ana Ilić was born on 25 December 1995 in Vranje.

She finished primary and secondary education, despite her illness, in Vladičin Han and is now a student at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš.

Until the age of nine, she did not differ in any way from other children, but then she was diagnosed with Friedreich's ataxia at the Children's Neurology Center in Belgrade.

It is a rare and serious incurable disease.

In a short time, Ana became confined to a wheelchair and a series of serious secondary diagnoses followed the basic: serious cardiomyopathy, skeletal deformities, fatigue, muscular weakness, diabetes.

She presented her poetry collections from 2012 to date on promotions in Belgrade, Vladičin Han, Vranje (during the Week of Goodness and the Vranje Cultural Year), Los Angeles, Toronto, Niš, as well as at the October Diaspora Writers' Meetings in Frankfurt.

The collection was presented to the readers at the International Book Fair 2012 in Belgrade in 2013, and with the help of the Association of Writers Sedmica, Frankfurt at the largest book fair in the world in Frankfurt.

Ana's story Sakupljanje ljubavi (Collecting Love) was published in the fifth book Ne ostavljaj me (Don't Leave Me) of the bestseller series O psima i ljudima (About Dogs and People) by Professor Dr. Ratko Božović and Marijana Rajić.

As part of the activities organized by the National Organization for Rare Diseases of Serbia in 2013, dedicated to the International Rare Disease Day, on 27 February, the Big scene of Atelje 212 Theater hosted aLiterary Evening with Ana Ilić.

Her verses were recited by: Ivana Kuzmanović, writer, Ivana Dimić, playwright and director of Atelje 212 Theater at the time, as well as actors: Milan Caci Mihailović, Ivan Jevtović, Nenad Ćirić, Jakov Jevtović, Tanja Petrović and Vladislav Mihailović.

Ana's first poem collection Pod svetlom istine was created between her tenth and sixteenth year, and was published on her 16th birthday as a gift from a group of authors from the publishing house Laguna and as the beginning of the humanitarian action under the coordination and patronage of writer Ivana Kuzmanović.