Nataša Velikonja

Nataša Velikonja (1967) is a sociologist, poet, essayist, translator and lesbian activist. In 1992 she obtained her BA in Theoretical Sociology from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, and received the Faculty Prešeren Award for her undergraduate thesis. She has published seven poetry collections: in 1994, the ŠKUC Publishing House published her first poetry collection Abonma (Subscription; 1994), considered to be the first openly lesbian poetry collection in Slovenia. This was followed by Žeja (Thirst; 1999), Plevel (Weeds; 2004), Poljub ogledala (Kiss of the Mirror; 2007), Ostani (Stay; 2014), Preveč vljudna (Too Polite, 2017) and Prostor sred križišč (A Place at the Crossroads, 2021). She is the author of six books of essays and scientific paper, analysing the intertwinement of artistic, cultural, political and socio-sexual realities; she writes from a counterculture, lesbian feminist perspective. She has translated dozens of literary works of culture theory, lesbian and gay theory and radical social criticism, as well as theories of architecture, design and art history. She is also active on other fronts of culture and arts in Slovenia: she is a former editorial board member of the magazine Časopis za kritiko znanosti, former editor of the Lesbo magazine, a long-time columnist for Radio Študent, and is currently the coordinator of the Lesbian Library and Archive at the Autonomous Cultural Zone of Metelkova. She has been registered with the Slovenian Ministry of Culture as a freelance poet, art critic and translator since 1995. She is the recipient of the 2016 Župančič Award and the 2018 Kons International Literary Award, conferred on authors who are considered to have written socially transformative literature and dedicated their lives to improving social justice.

Nina Dragičević

Nina Dragičević (1984) is a writer and composer who holds a PhD in sociology. She is Werner Düttmann Fellow 2023 (Akademie der Künste, Berlin), the recipient of Dr. Ana Mayer Kansky Award 2023, the Jenko Award (2021), the Župančič Award (2020), and two Knights of Poetry Awards (2018). In 2018, she was presented with the University of Ljubljana Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Academic Success and the Faculty of Social Sciences Outstanding Study Achievement Award (2018).

She is also a poet, essayist and composer. She holds a PhD in Sociology. She is the author of Kdo ima druge skrbi (Who’s Got Other Concerns; Škuc, 2014), Slavne neznane (The Famous Unknown; Škuc, 2016), Med njima je glasba (There Is Music between Them; Parada ponosa, 2017), Ljubav reče greva (Luv Says Let’s Go; Škuc, 2019) and To telo, pokončno (This Body, Standing; Škuc, 2021). Her texts have been translated into English, Serbian, Croatian, Ger- man, Czech, Spanish and Portuguese. Dragičević is a member of the Slovene Writer’s Association and the Slovene PEN Centre.

She is the recipient of the 2021 Jenko Award and the 2020 Župančič Award. In 2018, she won The Knight of Poetry competition, and was the first in its history to receive both the Jury Award and the People’s Choice Award. She was nominated for kritiško sito and the Veronika Award. She was also presented the Outstanding Achievement Award of the University of Ljubljana. In 2018, she was shortlisted for the European award Palma Ars Acustica.

Nina Mav Hrovat

Nina Mav Hrovat is a teacher and heads a children's kindergarten. As one of the founding members of the Mlin Radomlje Cultural Society (Kulturno društvo Mlin Radomlje) she has undertaken many roles – including acting, playwriting, directing and, from 2013–2017, as the society president. For several years, she headed the fairy-tale reading sessions at the Domžale Library, and it is her work with children and interest in fairy-tales that led her to her first authorial work. This was published in 2001 in the Ciciban and Cicido magazines, with some also in the Trobentica magazine. Some of her work was published as picture books, and her debut fairy-tale The King Who Hated Tidying Up (O kralju, ki ni maral pospravljati) received an award for the most original Slovenian picture book in 2009. In 2013, The Mouse that Gathered Courage (O miški, ki je zbirala pogum) fairy-tale was nominated for the Kristina Brenkova Award, and in 2019 The Mouse Finds New Friends (Miška želi prijatelja) fairy tale was nominated for the Desetnica Award. Ozimnica / Stores for the Winter is nominated for the Kristina Brenkova Award (2021)

Patricija Peršolja

Patricija Peršolja works as a speech and language therapist and deaf educator and is the author of many stories for children and young adults. She started publishing stories in magazines for children and wrote a series of children’s stories for the Slovene National Radio. In 2013 she was nominated for the Veronikina nagrada, the literary award given to the year’s best collection of poems, with her first book of poetry, Gospodinjski blues.

Peter Škerl

Peter Škerl graduated in illustration and visual communication design from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. He has already excelled in fine arts as a primary school student. In 1991, when he was still in high school, he made a short cartoon film called Three caterpillars (Tri gosenice). Since 2002 he has been working as a freelance artist. He illustrates picture books and books for children and young people, textbooks and manuals (Mladinska knjiga, DZS) and publishes in children's magazines (Ciciban, Cicido, Mavrica, Ognjišče). He has illustrated more than 100 different editions of literary works. He has been particularly successful with his illustrations for the book The swamp people (Močvirniki) by Barbara Simoniti. He has also designed the artwork for several puppet and theatre performances. Škerl lives and works in Dolenjske Toplice.

Peter Svetina

Peter Svetina is a writer, professor and translator from Slovenia. He writes for children, young adults and adults, but his work often crosses the borders between different target audiences. Svetina’s works often play with occurrences and images arising from his everyday life, and have been translated into English, German, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian. His books have received some of the most prestigious national and international awards and are immensely popular among literary critics and young readers alike. His name was included in the shortlist of the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award.

Petra Kavšek

Author of cookbooks (Palačinke in omlete (‘Pancakes and Omelettes’), Gozdna kuhinja (‘Forest kitchen’)), photographer and graphic designer Petra Kavšek has been fascinated by cooking creativity, healthy eating and connecting with each other since she was a young girl. She is the owner of thefoodie.si, a food portal with culinary content that inspires readers to prepare desserts and other dishes in interesting flavours and shapes. The author’s recipes and inspiring ideas allow readers to combine household chores with quality family time. Her recipes are so simple and fun to prepare that they are also suitable for children, making them a great and varied way to deepen family ties.

Polona Lovšin

Polona Lovšin is an illustrator and a painter. She has illustrated numerous of picture books and textbooks, and regularly collaborates with the most important Slovenian children's magazines such as Zmajček, Cicido, Ciciban and Kekec. She lives and works in Ljubljana, but often travels due to her exhibitions abroad and collaborates with important publishing houses such as Pan Macmillan, Penguin Books and Templar Publishing.

Rade Pantić

Rade Pantić (1982) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade. He is co-editor of the book, Contemporary Marxist Theory of Art (Orion art/Fakultet za medije i komunikacije, Belgrade, 2015) [Serbian]. His areas of interest include historical materialism, theory of ideology, art theory, film and urban studies. He is currently working on a Marxist analysis of Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav history.

Ram Cunta

Ram Cunta (1985) graduated in 2008 from the SAE Institute in Ljubljana, where he then worked as an assistant and lecturer for the next two years. He has been a member of the band Mart since 2005, and the group has released two albums to date.He returned to his home Vipava Valley in 2011, where he has worked as a forester ever since, managing the family's forest property. He enrolled in a creative writing class in September 2019. Tik is his first published book.