In Called by Distances, Biljana D. Obradovic looks back at a life that includes surviving the demise of her native country of Yugoslavia, the loss of her parents in the same year, and displacement from Hurricane Katrina. Her poetry encompasses loves and deaths, international travels and adjustments to American culture, often accompanied by a feeling of not belonging anywhere. What emerges from these richly evocative poems is a portrait of an artist who resists the call to assimilate, and instead carves her own unique path, continuing to dream.