Featuring: Nadia Roncelli, Martina Kafol, Hanzi Filipič
Hosted by: Matej Krajnc

Language. Word. Book. On the International Mother Language Day, we are hosting three renowned personalities who have played a key role in shaping Slovenia’s transborder publishing landscape for many years.  

The event will be held in Slovenian, without translation.
 

Organised by the Slovene Writers’ Association
Readings by: Mojca Andrej, Sanja Rozman, Barbara Hanuš, Igor Karlovšek, Jasmin B. Frelih
Hosted by: Meta Kušar
Musical accompaniment: Matej Krajnc

In keeping with tradition, the new members of the Slovene Writers' Association have the floor on Prešeren Day. 

The event will be held in Slovenian, without translation.

Immigrant authors will address the importance of immigrant literature, the conditions for creativity in Slovenia and their participation in Slovenia's main literary events and festivals.  

Barbara Rigler graduated in Comparative Literature and Sociology of Culture and completed her Master's degree at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. She is a literary producer at the Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities and the editor-in-chief of Mentor magazine. Her professional work focuses on writers of all ages writing in Slovenian and in their mother tongues.

Aleksandra Gačić is a literary critic whose work focuses mainly on African literature, motifs of foreignness in Slovenian literature, literalised themes of racism, otherness, migration, etc. She launched Iniciativa Afrike, a literary and performance initiative, with Maša Kagao Knez and Dalanda Diallo in 2021.

Marijanca Ajša Vižintin is a research associate at the Slovenian Migration Institute, ZRC SAZU, author of several scientific articles and the scientific monograph Intercultural Education: the Integration of Children of Immigrants (2017). She is a co-editor (2013–14 and from 2024) of the scientific journal Dve domovini/Two Homelands.

Hosted by: Selma Skenderović

Immigrant authors will address the importance of immigrant literature, the conditions for creativity in Slovenia and their participation in Slovenia's main literary events and festivals.  

Žanina Mirčevska was born in 1967 in Skopje, where she graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts and then continued her postgraduate studies in dramaturgy in Ljubljana. She is a dramaturge working on various productions in Slovenia and abroad, as well as an author of numerous essays on playwriting and a prolific playwright.

Ana Lasić is a screenwriter and playwright. She graduated in dramaturgy in 1999 from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where she worked as a dramaturg and critic. Her first feature film, Ruševine (with director Janez Burger), won the Best Slovenian Film Award at the 2004 Slovenian Film Festival. Her book Intuitivna scenaristika was published by the Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities in 2022.

Ivana Djilas was born in 1976 in Belgrade and has lived and worked in Slovenia since 1999. She is a theatre director, writer and journalist. Known for her distinctive poetics, Djilas has directed around fifty different performances in various Slovenian theatres. She has received several awards for her work in theatre. She wrote the acclaimed novel Hiša and a unique collection of autobiographical essayistic stories A si lahko vsaj enkrat tiho.

Hosted by: Selma Skenderović

Immigrant authors will address the importance of immigrant literature, the conditions for creativity in Slovenia and their participation in Slovenia's main literary events and festivals.  

Sara Afzali is an Iranian poet, journalist, photographer and visual artist based in Slovenia. She was born a year before the Islamic Revolution. A year and a half after the revolution, the eight-year war with Iraq began. She actually spent her entire childhood in the maelstrom of war. She says that her home is Ljubljana, where she can rest, read, write, think, own books, a notebook and pen, a camera, a bed, the clothes she likes and shoes she can walk in.

Mohamad Abdul Munem (1965) is a Syrian publisher and writer of Palestinian descent. He used to have a publishing house in Aleppo. He published works by authors from around the world, also ones that were not close to Assad’s regime, which is why his life was endangered on several occasions. In 2016 he immigrated to Europe. Adopting Slovenia as his new home, he soon started to participate in cultural activities in Ljubljana. He recently published a trilingual poetry collection Enaindvajset žensk iz Ljubljane (Twenty-one Women from Ljubljana, 2018) and is also writing new works. A book about his life story, Trije spomini – Med Hajfo, Alepom in Ljubljano (2019), was written by Andraž Rožman. He received the international PONT prize in 2024.

Carlos Pascual (México City, 1964) studied literature, theatre and film in Mexico and the USA. He lives and works in Ljubljana, writes columns for the Dnevnik daily and publishes his stories, essays and crónicas in various literary magazines and online cultural media. In Slovenia, he has written a collection of essays O služkinjah, visokih petah in izgubljenih priložnostih (2015), an essayistic travelogue Debeli zidovi, majhna okna (2017), and a book of crónicas Nezakonita melanholija (2020), which won the 2021 Novo mesto Short Award for best short-story collection.

Hosted by: Selma Skenderović
 

Immigrant authors will address the importance of immigrant literature, the conditions for creativity in Slovenia and their participation in Slovenia's main literary events and festivals.  

Zoran Knežević was born in 1958 in Sombor. He moved to Slovenia in 1995, where he completed his studies in Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. His first story, Muzikant, was published in the Proceedings of the 21st Meeting of Literary Writers of Other Nations and Nationalities in 1999. His collection of short stories, Dvoživke umirajo dvakrat (Cankarjeva založba, 2014), won the Best First Book Award.

Neven Ušumović (Zagreb, 1972) is a writer and translator. He graduated in Philosophy, Comparative Literature and Hungarian Studies and studied Turkish Studies. He has published four collections of short stories and a novel in Zagreb. His short story collection Zlata bureklina (2019) was awarded the Croatian Writers' Association Kamov Prize.

Ivan Antić (1981) has authored several books. His stories have been translated into many languages and included in various fiction anthologies. A translation of his short story collection, Membrane, membrane, was published in Slovenian by Cankarjeva založba in 2019. He translates fiction from Slovenian. His translation of Dane Zajc's Dol, dol won the Best Poetry Translation Award of the Serbian Translators' Association. In 2024, his book O tempora, o mores! was shortlisted for the Andrić Prize.

Host: Selma Skenderović
 

Widad Tamimi (1981) is an Italian-born writer of Jewish-Palestinian descent. A political scientist, she holds a Master's degree in International Law. Le rose del vento is her second novel (in Slovenian published by Sanje).

Said Khatibi is an Algerian writer. He studied in Algeria and France. He has published four novels, translations of Kateb Yacine's poetry, and an anthology of Algerian short stories. He is a recipient of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, the Arab Journalism Award and the Ibn Batuta Prize for Travel Writing.

Hosted by: Selma Skenderović

In English, with simultaneous translation into Slovenian.
 

Moderated by: Muanis Sinanović

Lana Bastašić
Among her generation of writers, Lana Bastašić is arguably the region’s most internationally prominent novelist. The structure of her debut novel, Uhvati zeca (Catch the Rabbit), draws inspiration from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It won the EU Prize for Literature and widespread international acclaim. Her books examine the themes of contemporary nomadism and identity crises. In 2023, she won the DAAD Berlin residency fellowship. In addition to novels, she has also authored award-winning short stories and poetry.

In December 2023, Bastašić terminated her contract with the German publishing house S. Fischer, accusing it of silence in the face of the genocide in Gaza. She is critical of German censorship of pro-Palestinian views in the public sphere, as well as of all other imperialist and colonialist practices.
 

Moderated by: Ana Scnhabl

Colombe Schneck is a French journalist, filmmaker, and writer. Born in 1966 into a Parisian-Jewish family, she went on to study at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and Université de Paris II, and to work for various French media outlets such as Canal+, i>Télé, and France Inter until 2012. She directed two documentaries, and two feature-length films: Femmes sans enfant, femmes suspect in 2014, and Vieux amoureux in 2015. 

Her entry into the world of writing was an accident. While leafing through a magazine, she happened upon an article that described the sordid circumstances of her grandfather’s death, who was murdered by his lover. This not only inspired Colombe to write her first novel but also set her on her path towards a style of writing that is obsessed with family secrets, as well as uncovering the Jewish experience during World War II. She is an award-wining author of eleven books of fiction and non-fiction. Schneck’s diptych on a woman’s life, exploring the issues of sexuality, femininity, friendship and loss, was published in spring 2024 (No! Press).

Moderated by: Muanis Sinanović

Selma Asotić is a Sarajevo-born US-based poet, and one of former Yugoslavia’s major voices in contemporary poetry. She teaches Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts. A bilingual poet, she has won several grants, nominations and awards, most notably the Robert Pinsky Fellowship and other prizes in the Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and the Stjepan Gulin Prize.

In addition to her exceptional writing, Asotić is known for her live readings. Her work reflects on feminist issues, the relationship between cultural hubs and the periphery, grappling with a sense of belonging and finding refuge in the art of literature.