Slovene Learning Community and Resources

Slovene Contemporary Writers

Slovenia is a small country in Central Europe that has a rich literary history. Many Slovene writers have contributed
to the country's culture and literature, leaving behind works that are still widely read and admired today - the works
of Slovene authors have provided readers with insight into the struggles, emotions, and lives of the Slovene people.
As the Slovene literature scene continues to evolve, readers can look forward to more works of insight and beauty
from Slovene authors.
Here are a few of the most famous contemporary Slovene writers.

BORIS PAHOR

Boris Pahor was a Slovene writer and journalist who has written numerous books and articles about his experiences as a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Born in Trieste, Italy in 1913, Pahor’s family were Slovene immigrants who had come to the city in search of work. At the age of twenty-four, he joined the Partisans, a resistance group to the occupying Italian and German forces. He was captured and sent to several camps, including Dachau, where he was forced to work in a coal mine. In 1945, Pahor returned to Trieste, where he began writing about his experiences in the camps.
His first novel, Necropolis, was published in 1967 and was later made into a film in 1986. Pahor also wrote several
non-fiction works, including Return to Hell, which detailed his experiences in the concentration camps, and his reflections on the horrors of war. Pahor is considered one of the most critical and influential Slovenian authors, and his works have been translated into multiple languages. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the French Legion of Honor, and the Order of Friuli. In 2009, he was the first living author to be awarded the highest Slovenian award, the Prešeren Award. In addition to his writing, Pahor has been an advocate for human rights and a vocal critic of war and violence. He was a member of several organizations, including the International PEN and the International Society for Human Rights. In his later years, he continued to write and speak out against fascism and racism. Boris Pahor is an important figure in Slovenian literature and culture, and his writings serve as a powerful reminder of the horrors of war, and the need for peace and understanding. His contributions to literature and human rights are invaluable, and his legacy will live on for generations to come. He died in 2022 at the age of 108.

NEŽA MAURER

Neža Maurer, Slovene poet, writer, journalist, editor and translator, born in 1930, has left an indelible mark on the
Slovene literary space, in which she has been present for more than sixty years with her work, especially poetry. 
These include more than twenty poetry collections for adults and just as many for children - many children's songs
(around 450) have been set to music. She also writes prose works for adults and children. More than eighty of her
children's plays and shows were broadcast on the radio. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the
special recognition of the Association of Reading Badges for her fundamental contribution to the reading culture
of Slovene youth in 1980 and 1985, the Prešeren Fund award in 1987, the Grohar Award for Lifetime Achievement
 in 1991, the title of Slovene Woman of the Year in 2008, and the Gold Coin of Poetry award for lifetime achievement
 in 2010.

DRAGO JANČAR

Drago Jančar is one of the most influential contemporary Slovene authors. He has won numerous awards throughout his career and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Through his novels, short stories and essays, Jančar has explored themes of Slovene history and culture, as well as the effects of war and the refugee experience. Jančar’s writing is often described as lyrical and poetic, with a focus on characterization and psychological depth. He has written in a variety of genres, including satire, magical realism, and historical fiction. Many of his works have been adapted for film, theatre, and television.

Jančar is considered to be one of the most important figures in Slovene literature. He has been awarded the Prešeren Prize, the highest honor in Slovene literature, as well as the EU Prize for Literature. He has served as president of the Slovene PEN Centre and is a member of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Novels: Petintrideset stopinj / Thirty-Five Degrees (1974), Galjot / The Galley Slave (1978), Severni sij / Northern Lights (1984), Posmehljivo poželenje / Mocking Desire (1993),  Zvenenje v glavi / Ringing in the Head (1998), Katarina, pav in jezuit / Katarina, the Peacock and the Jesuit (2000),  Drevo brez imena / The Tree with No Name (2008),  To noč sem jo videl / I Saw Her That Night (2010), In ljubezen tudi / And Love Itself (2017), Ob nastanku sveta / At the Creation of the World (2022).

ANDREJ BLATNIK

Andrej Blatnik, born in 1963 in Ljubljana, is a Slovene author, professor of publishing and editor at Cankarjeva založba. He is currently one of the most important figures in Slovene literature, having won several prizes and awards, and having been known worldwide for his unique style for short stories. He has published seventeen books in Slovenia (five novels, six collections of short stories and six non-fiction), which are also been published abroad, so far in more than 35 independent book editions (four in English and Macedonian, three in German and Turkish, two in Spanish, Italian and Czech, six in Croatian, individual books in French, Hungarian, Slovak, Russian, Oriya, etc.). His stories have been included in a number of anthologies, including Best European Writing 2010 and Short: Five Centuries of Short Short Stories. For his literary work, he received the Golden Bird Award (1984), the Župančič Award (1991), the Prešeren Fund Award (2002), and in 2016 the Russian award for the best-translated book of Slavic short prose by Premje Jugra. He was an invited guest at a number of central world literary festivals: PEN World Voices in New York, Toronto International Festival of Authors, Cosmopolis in Barcelona, and Jaipur Literary Festival in India.

BRINA SVIT

Brina Svit, born in 1954, is an internationally renowned Slovene writer, screenwriter, director and journalist. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana (comparative literature and French). She has lived in Paris since 1980, where she was a scholarship recipient of the French Ministry of Culture in 1985-1987. She wrote and recorded two short feature films (Nikola and Balkon) and a documentary film about the actress Jeanne Moreau.

During all this time, she actively collaborated with the newspaper Delo, for which she wrote articles, interviews and other contributions. For the last twenty years, she has mainly devoted herself to literature. She wrote two radio plays for the French radio station France Culture. From the novel Moreno onwards in 2003, she wrote each of her books twice: first in French and then in Slovene.

FERI LAINŠČEK

Feri Lainšček, born in 1959 lives and creates in Prekmurje region, in Murska Sobota and is a Slovene writer, poet, playwright and screenwriter. His bibliography includes more than 100 independent book units, including 23 novels, most of which have already been translated into foreign languages. He is one of the most widely read Slovene writers, as he is the author of many bestsellers. The author has also received numerous awards for his works. In 1995, he received the Prešeren Foundation Award for his novel Ki jo je megla prinesla. Kresnik, the prize for the best Slovene novel, was awarded twice, namely in 1992 for the novel Namesto koga roža cveti and in 2007 for the novel Muriša. Večernica, the award for the best Slovene youth literary work, was awarded in 2001 for the book of fairy tales Mislice. In 2012, he received the Desetnica, the award of the Society of Slovene Writers for youth literature, for the book Pesmi o Mišku in Belamiški. At the Portorož film festival in 2008, he received the Vesna Award for the screenplay of the feature film Hit poletja, and at the Montreal Film Festival in 2012, the feature film Shanghai, based on his novel Nedotakljivi / The Untouchables, received the screenplay award. Feri Lainšček is also a Slovene writer whose literary works have seen the most film adaptations.

MAJA VIDMAR

Maja Vidmar, born in 1961, is from Nova Gorica and lives as a freelance writer in Ljubljana. So far, she has published six poetry collections (Razdalje telesa, 1984; Način vezave, 1988; Ihta smeri, Emonica, 1989 (selection); Ob vnnožju, 1998; Prisotnost, 2005; Sobe, 2008 and Kako se zaljubiš 2012). For the book Prisotnost, she received the Jenko Prize, the Prešeren Fund Prize and the Vienna Scholarship within the framework of the Grosser Preis für osteuropäische Literatur. She received the Premio Letterario Internazionale Trieste Scriture di Frontiera dedicato a Umberto Saba 2007 and for the book Sobe the Prize of the Network of Cities of Literature 2009. Six books of her poetry were published abroad: Leibhaftige Gedichte (Droschel, 1999), for which she received the Hubert-Burda- Stifung für junge Lyrik, Akt (Meandar, 1999), Molitva tijela (Tugra, 2007), Gegenwart (Edition Korrespondenzen, 2007) Mode of binding (Književnika Srpske association, 2009) and E il mondo si scolora (Ibiskos Editore, 2010). She alsohas many foreign and domestic magazine and anthology publications.

 MIHA MAZZINI

Miha Mazzini, born in 1961 in Jesenice, is a Slovene writer, columnist, screenwriter, movie director but employed as a computer engineer. He completed postgraduate studies in screenwriting at The University of Sheffield in England and is a member of the European Film Academy. He also finished his graduate studies at Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis, Ljubljana  for Anthropology of Everyday Life program. He is the director of five short films, a documentary film and the award-winning feature film Izbrisana. In 2001, Sašo Podgoršek directed the feature film Sladke sanje based on his script, and later Mazzini wrote the novel King of Roaring Ghosts based on it, and in 1992 Miran Zupanič directed the feature film Operation Cartier, which won the CIRCOM award for the best European TV movie in 1992. His prose works include more than 30 published literary books, which have been translated into eleven languages. He has also published nine computer manuals, as he is employed as a computer consultant in the field of user interfaces for Internet and mobile applications. He taught writing film scripts - among other things at the screenwriting school Show Your Language (1999-2005), he was also a guest lecturer at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb (2001), at the screenwriting workshop Palunko (2004-2005) and the Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, USA (2004).

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