Bojana Dimitrovski

Bojana Dimitrovski (1974) is an illustrator and painter who is inspired by the psychology of characters, the alien, and the unusual. She has illustrated more than 17 books, including the ballad fairy tale A Moonlight String by Svetlana Makarovič and the picture book The Fire by Neli Kodrič Filipič. The illustrations for The Fire were displayed at the Ljubljana Town Hall in 2016. Together with the Serbian writer Dana Todorović, she created a trilogy featuring a cat called Cecil. In 2019 she received the Hinko Smrekar Accolade for her illustrations in the book Slovakian Folktales. Since 2012 she has regularly illustrated young adult and children’s magazines in Slovenia. In 2022 she illustrated the picture book Greta the Cat by Vinko Möderndorfer, which was nominated for the Levstik Award. In 2021 she moved to Sweden, where she is a member of Svenska Tecknare, the association of Swedish illustrators and graphic designers.

Brane Mozetič

Brane Mozetič (1958) je pesnik, pisatelj, prevajalec, urednik, založnik, aktivist, promotor slovenske literature v tujini in še marsikaj. Med njegovimi številnimi izdanimi knjigami, ki se uspešno prevajajo v različne tuje jezike, je tudi šest otroških slikanic: Dežela bomb, dežela trav (2013), Alja dobi zajčka (2014), Prva ljubezen, (2014), Dihurlandija (2016), Murenček in Polhek (2017) in Ahil in Patrokles (2020). Izdal je tudi mladinsko poljudnoznanstveno knjigo Rožnate zgodbe iz neheteronormativne zgodovine, ki je bila vključena v katalog Belih vran 2021.

Ciril Horjak

Ciril Horjak (1975) is a comics artist, illustrator, and lecturer. His first graphic novel Ride was published in 2003. He drew live on air in an interactive radio show for several years. He has published comics and illustrations in magazines, newspapers, and books, including Večer since 2006 (more than 1900 illustrations so far), Delo, the bulletin Avtoceste, Den Politiken (which selected his illustration among more than 400 drawings from all over the world in 2021), The Guardian, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Chicago Tribune, and others. In 2023 he finished the graphic novel King Ubu, based on the play by Alfred Jarry. In 2008 he received the Most Innovative HR Practice Award for the comics-based training he designed for the company Slorest. He is the author of the first informal Slovenian textbook on comics The Smallest Biggest Encyclopaedia of Comics. He regularly leads workshops for young adults, migrants, and others. As a guest lecturer, he lectures on comics at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, and teaches Art Theory at the High School of Design and Photography. He has received an award from the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education for his educational work, an award from the Slovenian Association of Journalists for his illustrations in Večer, and the Prešeren Fund Award for his work in comics.

Damijan Stepančič

Damijan Stepančič (1969) studied design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana but, realising he is better suited to a classical approach when dealing with the fundamental problems of art, he transferred to painting. He devotes most of his time to children’s and young adult illustration, and he has collaborated with newspapers and magazines for both young readers and adults. In addition to painting and illustration, he also works in comics, animation, and with puppets, as well as provides artwork for textbooks and manuals. He has illustrated or provided artwork for more than a hundred fiction books and over a hundred textbooks, co-authored numerous comic books, and held multiple solo exhibitions. Many of the books he has illustrated have received the Golden Pear Rating or Award. He has received numerous awards, including the Best Original Idea Award at the Slovenian Biennial of Illustration, the Hinko Smrekar Distinction, the Levstik Award, the Hinko Smrekar Award, and the Kristina Brenkova Award. He has been named to the IBBY Honour List, as well as nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and multiple Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards.

Danijel Demšar

Danijel Demšar (1954) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Initially an art teacher at a primary school, he abandoned the teaching profession after receiving the Levstik Award and devoted himself to illustrating books and designing puppets in various puppet theatres. He collaborated regularly with the magazine Ciciban. In 1992, he co-initiated the establishment of the Illustrators’ Section of the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies. For several years since 2004, he served as one of its two vice-presidents. In his work he focuses on painting, graphic art, book illustration, and puppet theatre (designing sets, costumes, and puppets). He has developed a special process for etching colours on paper and printing from paper to paper with the help of computer printing. His works have been featured in 44 solo and 65 group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. He has illustrated 51 books, created 12 puppet shows, and designed three theatre sets. He has received nine awards for his work, including the Hinko Smrekar Award, the Hinko Smrekar Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Levstik Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named on the 2012 IBBY Honour List.

David Krančan

David Krančan (1984) graduated in comics from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. In both theory and practice, he is an explorer of the dimensions of comics as an artistic expression. His stories are often wordless, with the narrative keys hidden within the imagery. He has been a member of the editorial board of the magazine Stripburger for 20 years. In 2008, he collaborated with Andraž Polič on the haiku comic album On the First Track. Since 2011 he has been illustrating the front page of the Dnevnikov Objektiv newspaper supplement, for which he received a Distinction at the Slovenian Biennial of Illustration. In 2014 he published the children’s comic Grdina, followed a year later by the comic book The Drunken Rabbit, both of which are based on the Beasties From Resia tales. His works have been displayed in prominent Slovenian and European galleries. The Drunken Rabbit received the Best Book Design Award in the Comics category at the Slovenian Book Fair.

Eva Mlinar

Eva Mlinar (1985) studied art history at the Faculty of Arts and visual communication at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. She works in various artistic fields, with an emphasis on illustration and theatre. She designed the visual identity for the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre shadow play Gallop, worked as art director on the animated TV series Stories from the Draught, and collaborates with the Anton Podbevšek Theatre in Novo Mesto and the Wellcome Collection in London as illustrator and designer. She regularly exhibits at biennials and illustration exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad (Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, France, Germany, Turkey, China). Together with illustrator Hana Jesih, she published the artist’s book Impressions (Ljubljana/Istanbul) in 2018, which received the Hiii Illustration Merit Award in China. In 2019, together with writer Eva Mahkovic, she published a literary and visual collection of grotesques, The Bête Noire Vignettes, which received the Book of the Year Grand Prix at the 2019 Slovenian Book Fair, as well as Special Mention by the President of the Jury at the 14th Slovenian Biennial of Illustration. She is also the recipient of the Brumen Award for her series of book covers for the Ljubljana City Theatre library, and her book covers for the festival Fabula were shortlisted for a Hiii Illustration Merit Award in 2022.

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 received most Slovene literary awards. He is the most translated contemporary Slovene author, and his plays are regularly staged abroad. His diverse oeuvre mainly consists of books for adults, but Flisar has also wrote some successful books for children and YA: Alice in Crazyland, which was also adapted into a comic book, and Look Through the Window.

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.

Goran Vojnović

Goran Vojnović (1980), a film and TV director by training, is a screenwriter, writer, and columnist. He is author of four novels that have been translated into more than twenty languages and awarded multiple times. In 2022, the Mladinska knjiga publishing house published his first book for young readers, the picture book Sinica in taščica (The Robin and the Tit).