Dušan Jelinčič

Dušan Jelinčič (1953) is a writer, playwright, essayist and translator from Trieste. A professor of literature by training, he works as an editor and presenter on informative programmes at the Slovene section of the Italian state broadcaster RAI, and is also a top-class alpine climber. He is one of the most popular contemporary Slovene writers, characterised by his fluent language, an epic breadth, a modern approach and an insightful, in-depth rendering of individual issues. He has published over twenty works on themes ranging from mountaineering in which he has achieved international recognition, to romance, existentialism, mystical-fantasy, memoir and history. Notable among them is his novel Šepet nevidnega morja, dvanajst tablet svinca (The Whisper of an Invisible Sea, Twelve Tablets of Lead) (Mladika, 2020) which brought him the Prešeren Fund Award. Jelinčič is also recognised in the Italian cultural scene, particularly for his novel Zvezdnate noči (Starry Nights) (ZTT, 1990). Dove va il vento quando non soffia, the Italian translation of his novel Kam gre veter, ko ne piha (Where Does the Wind Go When It’s Not Blowing) (Litera, 2007), was reprinted as a weekly literary supplement in Italian daily newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Gazzetta dello Sport. 

Dušan Šarotar

Dušan Šarotar (1968) is a writer, poet, translator, screenwriter and photographer. The central theme of his recent works is the fate of the Jewish community and the Holocaust in Prekmurje. At the heart of his artistic creation are language, grief, and the human soul, all of which he approaches with a poetic language and his typical unhurried pace. His prose is characterised by descriptions of nature, the town, and a particularly local atmosphere. His novels, Biljard v Dobrayu (Billards at the Hotel Dobray) (Beletrina, 2007), Panorama (Beletrina, 2014) and Zvezdna karta (Star Chart) (Goga, 2021) were all nominated for the Kresnik Award for best novel of the year in Slovenia. In 2023 he received the Župančič Award for his novel Zvezdna karta. The English editions of Panorama and Billards at the Hotel Dobray were shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, the novel Panorama was on the longlist for the 2018 Dublin Literary Award and received the Cesar-Lopez Cuadras Award in 2017. In 2012 Šarotar began developing and exhibiting his photographic series Duše (Souls). His photographs are included in the permanent collection of the Murska Sobota Gallery.

Egon Pelikan

Egon Pelikan (1963) was born in Ljubljana. He studied at the University of Vienna and worked as a researcher at the University of Graz (1994-95) and at the History Department of Trieste University (1998). As a member of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he was a visiting assistant professor at the History Department of Duisburg-Essen University (2004–2005). He was also a visiting researcher at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig (2011). Between 2008 and 2010 he was president of the Union of Historical Societies of Slovenia. His research focuses on the period of political ideologies from late 19th century to the end of the Second World War. His papers have been published in collaboration with a number of internationally acclaimed historians and the most prestigious academic publishers in the field of historiography (Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik, Rodopi, Metropol, Peter Lang, etc.). His recent monograph in English, published in 2020 by Peter Lang, is Hitler and Mussolini in Churches: The Church Painter’s Subversion of Fascism. Pelikan is the recipient of Slovenia’s most prestigious prize for scientific achievement, the Zois Award (2017).

Erica Johnson Debeljak

Erica Johnson Debeljak (1961) has an unusual profile for a Slovene writer. Born in San Francisco, California, she moved to New York in 1981, where she obtained degrees from Columbia and New York University. In 1993 she moved to Slovenia to marry the poet Aleš Debeljak. Her first book, Tujka v hiši domačinov (Foreigner in the House of Natives) (Obzorja), was published in 1999. In the decades that followed, she wrote many more books in a range of genres, including the popular memoir Prepovedani kruh (Forbidden Bread) (Modrijan, 2010). 

In 2016, her life once again underwent a dramatic change when her husband died suddenly. She co-edited and contributed the introductory essay to the unique tribute Saj grem samo mimo: Razglednice Aleša Debeljaka (Just Passing Through: The Postcards of Aleš Debeljak)(Mladinska knjiga, 2021), and oversaw the transformation of this book into a museum exhibition. In 2021, she published Devica, kraljica, vdova, prasica (Virgin, Wife, Widow, Whore) (Mladinska knjiga), which became an instant bestseller and won the Book of the Year Award at the 37th Slovenian Bookfair. She writes in English and her work is translated into Slovene. A member of the Slovene Writers’ Association and International PEN, she lives and works in Ljubljana.

Esad Babačić

Esad Babačić (1965) has published twenty-five books of poetry, prose and essays. For his book Veš, mašina, svoj dolg (Do You Know, Machine, Your Debt) (Cankarjeva založba, 2020) he was awarded the Rožanc Award, Slovenia’s national award for best collection of essays. His poem Donava (Danube) was awarded the international Hörbiger Prize in Vienna, and his collection Prihodi, odhodi (Arrivals, Departures) (ŠKD Nika, 2013) was nominated for the Jenko Award, bestowed by the Slovene Writers’ Association. In 2014 he received the Velenjica Čaša Nesmrtnosti literary prize for his outstanding ten-year opus with an important contribution to 21st century Slovene literature. On the occasion, the President of the Slovene Writers’ Association at the time, Ivo Svetina, commented that, “Babačić’s directness spiced with his eternal rebelliousness brings an entirely new spirit to European poetry, one with which he has infected a great number of followers. As his contemporary and connoisseur of literary developments in Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe, especially in the German- speaking sphere, I join all those who recognise his status as one of the most powerful pens in Slovenia.” He also writes advertisement texts, is a publicist, film actor, former TV and radio presenter, as well as co-founder and curator of the Museum of Punk Culture.

Evald Flisar

Evald Flisar (1945) has visited 98 countries, worked as an underground train driver in Sydney, editor of an encyclopaedia of science in London, author of short stories and radio plays for the BBC, and was president of the Slovene Writers’ Association (1995-2002). Since 1998 he has been the editor of Sodobnost, the oldest Slovene literary journal. He has written 15 novels (11 of them shortlisted for the Kresnik Award), 2 collections of short stories, 3 travelogues, 2 books for children and 15 stage plays (8 nominated for the Best Play of the Year Award, winning three times). He was awarded the Prešeren Foundation Prize and the Župančič Lifetime Achievement Award. His novels and plays have appeared in 250 translations in 40 languages to date, and his plays are regularly performed by professional theatres around the world. His novel On the Gold Coast was listed by the Irish Times as one of the 13 best novels about Africa written by Europeans, alongside Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Isak Dinesen, JG Ballard, Bruce Chatwin and other great literary names. Among his best-known works are Velika žival samote (My Father's Dreams) (Vodnikova založba, 2001), Čarovnikov vajenec (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) (Pomurska založba, 1986), Opazovalec (If I Only Had Time) (Cankarjeva založba, 2009), and Alica v nori deželi (Alice in Crazyland) (Vodnikova založba; KUD Sodobnost International, 2008). On June 29, 2023, he has become a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Fabjan Hafner

Fabjan Hafner (b. 1966 in Carinthia, d. 2016), translator, poet and literary scholar, active at the Robert Musil Institute for Literary Research in Klagenfurt, co-founder of numerous literary journals and festivals. The Fabjan Hafner Prize for translations from German into Slovenian and vice versa is named after him. Complete works in Slovenian: Iz jezika, ki ga ni (From a language that does not exist, 2021). In German: Erste und letzte Gedichte, Suhrkamp, 2020 (trans. Peter Handke) and poems in the anthology Mein Nachbar auf der Wolke; Slowenische Lyrik des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts (Carl Hanser Verlag & Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, 2023).

Photo: Gerhard Maurer

Florjan Lipuš

Florjan Lipuš (1937) was born in Lobnik/Lobnig near Železna Kapla/ Bad Eisenkappel in Austria. He went to the humanistic secondary school at the Diocesan Seminary at Tanzenberg/ Plešivec where he graduated in 1958. He later co-founded the literary magazine Mladje, and was its editor for twenty years. He worked as a teacher in bilingual schools in Podjuna/Jauntal in Carinthia and, now retired, lives at Sele/Sielach near Žitara Vas/Sittersdorf. He has received numerous awards in Austria, Slovenia, and Germany, among others the Prešeren Award (2004), the Grand Austrian State Prize (2018) and the Petrarca- Preis in Germany (2011). His literary opus includes prose, poetry and theatre. Notable among his works are Zmote dijaka Tjaža (The Errors of Young Tjaž) (Obzorja, 1972), Odstranitev moje vasi (The Removal of My Village) (DZS, 1984), Boštjanov let (Sebastian’s Flight) (Litera, 2003), Mirne duše (Calm Souls) (Litera, 2015) and Gramoz (Gravel) (Litera, 2017).

Gabriela Babnik Ouattara

Gabriela Babnik Ouattara (1979) addresses the themes of racism, the role of women in contemporary society, and the loneliness of human existence with a global perspective. In her works she focuses on interracial relationships, alienation between family members, eroticism, and the anonymity of identity, combining these subject matters with post-colonial theory. With her reviews and analyses of literary works she regularly appears in literary magazines and journals, she runs literary workshops and writes radio plays. She has participated in various projects that treat literature in a modern, digital manner and has also prepared selections of contemporary Slovene prose for foreign almanacs and journals. She has translated three novels by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie into Slovene and is currently translating the substantial novel Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. Notable among her own novels are Koža iz bombaža (Cotton Skin) (Mladinska knjiga, 2007), Sušna doba (Dry Season) (Beletrina, 2012), Tri smrti (Three Deaths) (Beletrina, 2019) and Tišina, polna vetra (A Silence Full of the Wind) (Beletrina, 2022).

Gaja Kos

Gaja Kos (1979) is actively engaged in various roles with children’s and YA literature which she studied in Ljubljana. She works as a literary critic and has been publishing literature reviews in key printed and web media in Slovenia for over two decades. She also works as an editor for original Slovene books for children and young adults at Miš Publishing, at LUD Literatura she co-edits the collection of translated short prose Stopinje (Footprints), and she translates from English. She publishes professional and scientific articles about youth literature and lectures about it at symposia and conferences. As a writer she creates for children and is author of a board book, eight picture books, and three illustrated books. Her picture book Ne pozabi na naslov! (Don't Forget the Title) (Miš, 2022) was included in the White Ravens Catalogue. Notable among her recent works are also Obisk (The Visit) (Mladinska knjiga, 2019) and Nočni obisk (Night Visit) (Mladinska knjiga, 2022). She is a member of the programme committee of Slovenia's Reading Badge Society, a member of the executive board of the Slovene Literary Critics’ Association, a member of the supervisory board of the Slovene section of IBBY, and a member of the Slovene Writers' Association.