Photo of Aleš Šteger by Jože Suhadolnik
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Photo by Peter Semolič by Timhomir Pinter
Other features
Fall/Winter: Slovenian Poetry in Translation
Co-edited by J.C. Todd and Lucija Stupica
Lucija Stupica, born in 1971, lives in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia,writes poetry, articles about architecture and design, and works asinterior designer. She has published her poems in all major Slovenianliterary magazines (Literatura, Nova revija,Sodobnost). Her first book of poetry Celo na soncu(Cello in the Sun) was published by the Beletrina, Studentpublishing house, in 2001. It won the award of the 17th Slovenian BookFair for the best first book and the Zlata ptica (Golden Bird)award for the best artistic achievement. Stupica’s new book of poetryVetrolov was published in May 2004. A collection of the poemsfrom both books was published at Meandar Publishing house, Zagreb,Croatia in 2005. Her poetry is included in the anthology TenSlovenian Poets of the Nineties. She is a member of PEN and SloveneWriters’ Association.Stupica participated in the festival Days of Poetry and Wine in Medana,the International Festival of Poetry in Cartagena de Indias (2001), theInternational Literary Gathering Vilenica (2002) and Goranovoprolječe in Croatia (2003 and 2004). She participated in theInternational Poetry Festival in Gotland, Sweden and was a scholar atthe Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in 2004. She was a memberof City of Poets, which was organized for Dublin Writers Festival, June2004. Her poetry is included in this feature, as wellas in an earlier issue of The Drunken Boat.
J.C.Todd is author of Nightshade and Entering Pisces. Her most recentbook of poems, What Space This Body, will be published in fall2007 by Wind Publications. She is a Visiting Lecturer in the CreativeWriting Program at Bryn Mawr College in the United States.Introduction: The Poetic Word as Home and the World
Robert Titan Felix, 1972. Poet, writer, andessayist. So far he has published five poetry collections (Carpediem!, Magnifikat, Benedictus, Knjiga o razbitem času, andPekel spomladi). He is also the co-author of the novelSekstant and the author of three novels (Portal, Kri nadlaneh, and Sanja in samostan). In the previous year he wastwice nominated for the Kresnik award for best novel. He is also theeditor for literature at Dialogi magazine, and a translator.Currently he is finishing his studies of Slovene language withliterature at the University of Maribor (Faculty of Philosophy). Poets
StankaHrastelj, born in 1975. She studied Theology atUniversity of Ljubljana. Her work has been published in magazines andradio shows and numerous anthologies. In 2001, she won The Best YoungPoet prize at The Young Writers Festival “Urška”. Hercollection of poems Nizki toni (Low Tones, 2005) won TheBest Literary Debut Award in 2005.
Barbara Korun was bornin 1963 in Ljubljana, where she graduated in the Slovenian language andcomparative literature. She lives and teaches in Ljubljana. Shepublishes poems, and occasionally writes about literature. In 1999 hercollection of poetry The Edge of Grace was published andrecognized as the best “maiden” book of the year. Her poemshave been published in various anthologies in thirteen differentlanguages. In 2003 she published a book of poetical prose Fragmentsfrom under the Table and a chapbook Chasms at PoetryMiscellany Publications, UT- Chattanooga/ USA. In 2004 her newcollection of poetry Fissures was published in Ljuubljana. Shewas selected to present Slovenian poetry at the festival of Cork, theEuropean Capital of Culture for the year 2005, so her poems weretranslated and published under the title Songs of Earth andLight. 
JosipOsti, poet, prose writer, essayist, literary critic andanthologist was born in 1945 in Sarajevo. He has published19 books of poetry, 5 prose works and 13 books of essays. He has beeneditor of several anthologies of prose and poetry. His books have beentranslated into Slovenian, Italian, English, Polish, Turkish, Bulgarianand Macedonian. He has received various awards including Vilenica (1994)and Jenko’s Poetry Prize (2006). He lives and works in Slovenia.
Gregor Podlogar ,born in Ljubljana in 1974, graduated with a degree in Philosophy fromthe University of Ljubljana. He has published his poems in variousliterary magazines in Slovenia and abroad. Aleph Press published hisfirst two collections of poetry, States (1997) and Joy inVertigo (2002). In co-authorship with the poet PrimožČučnik and Žiga Kariž, a painter, an experimentalbook on New York entitled Ode on Manhattan Ave (2003) came outwith Sherpa Press. In 2006 A Million Seconds Closer was publishedby Literatura Press. He lives, works and drinks tea in Ljubljana.
PeterSemolič, born in Ljubljana in 1967, studied generallinguistics and cultural studies at the University of Ljubljana. He isthe author of eight books of poetry: Tamarisk (1991), TheRoses of Byzantium (1994), House Made of Words (1996),Circles Upon the Water (2000), Questions About the Path(2001), Border (2002), Bog’ Fires (2004) and A Spacefor You (2006). He received many prizes for his work, including thetwo most eminent awards in Slovenia, Jenko’s Poetry Prize and thePrešeren Prize — the National Award for Literature and Arts.In 1998 he also won the Vilenica Crystal Award. Peter Semolič alsowrites radio plays, children’s literature and translates from English,French, Serbian and Croatian. His poetry has been translated intoItalian, French, Spanish, English, German, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian,Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian.
AlešŠteger , poet and translator, has published six bookof poetry in Slovenia, and his poetry has been translated widely. Thecollection Protuberance has been translated into English,Slovakian, Croatian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Spanish and Czech. His manyawards include the Award of the National book fair in Ljubljana for thebest first book of the last two years, the Veronika prize for the bestSlovenian poetry volume of the year, the “Petrarch” Prize foryoung European authors and an International award for poetry given bythe Writers Association of Macedonia. He has published five collectionsof his translations of the selected poems of Gottfried Benn, MichaelDonhauser, Peter Huchel, Pablo Neruda, and Ingeborg Bachmann. He isco-founder and and former program director of the international poetryfestival Days of Poetry and Wine in Medana, Slovenia (med).Translators
Theo Dorgan was born inCork in 1953. His poetry collections are The Ordinary House ofLove (Galway, Salmon Poetry, 1991); Rosa Mundi (SalmonPoetry, 1995); and Sappho’s Daughter (Dublin, wave TrainPress 1998). He has also published a selected poems in Italian, LaCase ai Margini del Mundo, (Faenza, Moby Dick, 1999), and a Spanishtranslation of Sappho’s Daughter, La Hija de Safo, (Madrid,Poesía Hiperión, 2001). He has edited The Great Book ofIreland (with Gene Lambert, 1991); Revising the Rising (withMáirín Ní Dhonnachadha, 1991); Irish Poetry SinceKavanagh (Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1996); Watching the RiverFlow (with Noel Duffy, Dublin, Poetry Ireland/ÉigseÉireann, 1999); and The Great Book of Gaelic (wiith MalcolmMaclean, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2002). He has been series Editor ofEuropean Poetry Translation Network publications and Director of thecollective translation seminars from which the books arose. The authorsfrom this series include Claude Esteban & Bernard Noel (France) JoaoMiguel Fernandes Jorge & Joaquim Manuel Magalhaes (Portugal) NikosPhokas & Demosthenes Agrafiotis (Greece) Mircea Cartarescu & RomulusBucur (Romania) Amir Or (Israel), Agi Mishol (Israel), Alex Susana(Catalonia), Marta Pessarrodona (Catalonia), Umberto Fiori (Italy),Biancamaria Frabotta (Italy), Hulki Aktunc (Turkey), Lale Muldur(Turkey). A former Director of Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann,he has worked extensively as a broadcaster of literary programmes onboth radio and television. He was presenter of Poetry Now onRTÉ Radio 1, and later presented RTÉ’s books programme,Imprint. Among his awards are the Listowel Prize for Poetry, 1992. Amember of Aosdána, he was appointed to The Arts Council / AnChomhairle Ealaíon in 2003. He also serves on the Board of CorkEuropean Capital of Culture 2005. He lives in Dublin. 
Evald Flisar is a novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayistand editor of the oldest Slovenian literary journal Sodobnost,published since 1933. He read comparative literature at the Universityof Ljubljana, Slovenia, and English in London, where he spent 17 yearsof his life, editing (among other things) an encyclopeadia of scienceand writing stories and radio plays for the BBC. From 1995 to 2002 hewas president of the Slovene Writers’ Association. His work has beentranslated into 23 languages. He has held public readings in many partsof the world (he has travelled in over eighty countries). His best knownnovel is Going Away with the Wild Tiger, now in its sixthedition. He is the author of three travel books regarded as the besttravelogues in the Slovene language: A Thousand and One Journey,South of North and Travels in Shadowlands (Prešeren FundAward). He has written fourteen plays; the two best known are Whatabout Leonardo (Best Play of the Year Award, produced in manycountries, also in London’s West End) and Tomorrow (PrešerenFund Award), which has been produced in as many as eighteen countries.Two of his books, Tales of Wandering and My Father’sDreams, have recently been published in the United States. MyFather’s Dreams was published in Greek translation by J & J HellasCompany in 2004 as Ta oneira tu patera mou. His latest play,Nora Nora, for which he received the Best Play of the Year Award2004, has been translated into English, Arabic, Czech, Slovak and Germanand has been produced in Slovenia, England, Austria and Egypt, where itcaused a scandal. He is currently engaged in transforming the journalSodobnost into a multilingual international literary magazinethat would appeal to a global readership. His Collected Plays, Vol.1, have just been published by Texture Press in New York. 
AnaJelnikar was born in Slovenia in 1975, and shared hereducation between London and Ljubljana. She is currently doing a PhD atthe University of London (SOAS), exploring the links betweenRabindranath Tagore and Srecko Kosovel. She translates into bothSlovenian and English. Her translation of Iztok Osojnik’s MisterToday came out in 2003 from Jacaranda Press (San Jose), and BraneMozetic’s Butterflies was published by Spuyten Duyvil in theUnited States in 2004. Her most recent poetry translations are IztokGeister’s Hymn to the Bush Tree and Taja Kramberger’sMobilizations. Her translations have appeared in such literarymagazines as Verse, Southern Humanities Review, Third Coast, andThe American Poetry Review, and in various anthologies. She isthe translator of the first Slovenian edition of C. G. Jung’s Man andHis Symbols, and has been involved in a number of internationalpoetry translation workshops.
Martha Kosir-Widenbauer was born in the US and grew up in Slovenia. After graduatingfrom high school, she moved back to the US and completed universitystudies, earning a B.A. in Spanish and German from Duquesne University,an M.A. in Spanish and Comparative literature from the University ofNotre Dame and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Literature from VanderbiltUniversity, with the area of specialization in 18th and 19th centurySpanish Peninsular literature. She works as a professor of Spanish atKentucky Wesleyan College. Her translations of the German poet UlrikeDraesner, the Slovenian poet Lucija Stupica and the British poet GilesGoodland were published in the poetry journal Sirena produced atDickinson College. 
Kelly Lenox has poemsand translations in MARGIN, poemeleon, Big Bridge, RHINO, nidus,Gobshite Quarterly, Switched-On Gutenberg, Poet Lore, Ellipsis, andforthcoming in Hubbub. Her chapbook Chasms (PM Books),translations of the Slovene poet Barbara Korun, was published in2003; other translations appear in Voice in the Body (Ljubljana:Litterae Slovenicae) and Six Slovenian Poets (Lancaster, England:Arc Publications), both 2006. Kelly is a contributing editor forHunger Mountain. 
Janko M. Lozar ,born 1973 in Novo mesto, Slovenia. In 2000, he received a B.A. inEnglish translation and philosophy at the University of Ljubljana,Faculty of Arts. In 2005, he received a PhD in philosophy. His currentoccupation is assistant at the Ljubljana Faculty of Fine Arts, theDepartment of Philosophy. The scope of his translations ranges fromphilosophy (Richard Rorty), literary science, prose, two volumesof poetry (Brian Henry’s Astronaut and a selection of poems byJoshua Beckmann, Leaving New York)) as well as poems by variousauthors from Great Britain and USA who took part in the Slovenian poetryfestival Medana (Andrew Zawacki, Matthew Zapruder). He also translatesinto English (Lucija Stupica, Dane Zajc, Aleš Šteger).
Tom Ložar was once a columnist for The [legendary, now defunct] Canadian Forum and is nowadays a columnist for the daily, Vecer, in Maribor, Slovenia, where, with the help of kind editors, he is finally learningto write Slovenian. He has written formagazines—among them, Prostor in Cas, Mladina, Razgledi,Matrix, and Maisonneuve—and newspapers, such as Delo, The Montreal Gazette and The Toronto Globe and Mail. His review of Jan Morris’s “Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere” appeared in Slovene Studies and is available on-line. He has published a volume of the poetry of Edvard Kocbek, and he was the first English translator of Gregor Strnisa’s poem “There was a tiger here.”
PeterRichards is the author of two books of poetry, NudeSiren and Oubliette. He is the Briggs-Copeland Lecturer onEnglish and American Language and Literature at Harvard University and arecipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant in Poetry, an IowaArts Fellowship, an Academy of American Poets Prize, and the John LoganAward. 
AnaRostohar ( born 1949). After graduating from thePhilosophic Faculty of Ljubljana University in English and Slovenian,she worked and lived in Bosnia (formerly Yugoslavia) and England. Shenow lives in Slovenia as a free-lance Court interpreter. Two books ofher poems have been published in Slovenia, and her work has also beenset to music and included in an Italian anthology of contemporarySlovenian poetry. 
LauraSolomon was born in 1976 in Birmingham, Alabama. Shestudied at the University of Georgia and University of Massachusetts atAmherst. Slope Editions released her first book, Bivouac, in2002. Other publications include a chapbook Letters by which SistersWill Know Brothers (Katalanche Press 2005), Haiku des Pierres /Haiku of Stones, by Pierre Converset, a translation from the Frenchwith Sika Fakambi (Apogee Press, 2006), and a second book of poetryBlue and Red Things (forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse,2007). Solomon’s poems have been translated into French, German,Italian, Slovenian and Spanish, and have appeared in journals throughoutNorth America and Europe. Currently she lives in Philadelphia.