Irena Vrkljan

Irena Vrkljan (Belgrade, 1930 – Zagreb, 2021) is a Croatian-German writer and translator writing in both German and Croatian. She grew up in Zagreb, studying Archeology and German Studies at the University of Zagreb and later at Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin. In the 1950s she started publishing her works in the former Yugoslavia. She also worked for the television and written scripts for film and radio. Since the late 1960s, she has been working a freelance writer in Berlin and Zagreb.

She received several important literary awards in Croatian, such as Tin Ujević best poetry award for In My Sister’s Skin, Vladimir Nazor Award for The Silk, the Shears, Ksaver Šandor Gjalski best novel award, for Marina; or, About Biography, and Croatian Academy of Science and Arts Award for The Last Trip to Geneva.

Milko Valent

Milko Valent (Zagreb 1948) graduated in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. He is a prose-writer, playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, polemicist, and theater critic, having contributed to about a hundred reviews, magazines and newspapers, as well as a number of radio programs and a number of internet portals. He performs all over the country and abroad with recitals, lectures, performances and provocative talks. His work has been included in numerous anthologies, collective surveys and selections of poetry, prose, essays, and plays.

Valent was awarded the third Marin Držić Prize for the play Naked Europe in 2000, and the first Marin Držić Prize for Ground Zero Aleksandra in 2002. He also was awarded the Vladimir Nazor Award for the novel Artificial Tears in 2014. He has been a member of the Croatian Philosophical Association since 1976, the Croatian Writers’ Association since 1981, the Croatian PEN Centre since 1992, the Croatian Centre of ITI-UNESCO since 1995, and the Croatian Writers Society since 2002.

Neven Ušumović

Neven Ušumović (Zagreb, 1972) grew up in Subotica, Serbia. He graduated in philosophy, comparative literature and Hungarian studies from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb. He won critical acclaim for collections of short stories: 7 mladih (1997), Makovo zrno (2009), Rajske ptice (2012), and a so-called short-lived novel Ekskurzija (2001).

He also works as a literary translator from Hungarian, having translated the works of Béla Hamvas, Ferenc Molnár, Péter Esterházy and Ádám Bodor. His short story was included in the anthology The Best European Fiction 2010, which was presented in The Guardian, The New York Times, Time, BBC World New Service and other major international media outlets.

Dinko Telećan

Dinko Telećan (Zagreb, 1974) graduated in Philosophy and English Language and Literature from the University of Zagreb. He works as an author, literary translator and editor. Selection from his works were translated into Catalan, English, Galician, German, Greek, Hungarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Spanish language. He translated over 60 books (novels, poetry, scientific books, books of essays and lectures, including authors such as J. G. Frazer, J. L. Borges, and Kahlil Gibran).

His poems in English were published in anthologies Poets' Paradise, The Fancy Realm and Poetic Bliss (Guntur, India, 2010–12). He participated in numerous literary festivals around the world (e.g. in India, the Canarian Islands, Serbia, Romania, Greece…). Telećan won various awards for his translations and essays, among them the annual awards of the Croatian Literary Translators' Association, as well as the Award for the best translation of non-fiction at the Sarajevo Literary Fair in 2006. Winner of the European Prize for Poetry at the Festival of Poetry in Curtea de Argeş in 2013.

His novel Deserter won the Krunoslav Sukić Award for the Book of the Year promoting pacifism, non-violence and human rights (Osijek, 2014). At the Writers' Festival in Trivandrum in 2014 won the Sahitya Shree Award for his contribution in the field of literature. From 2004 to 2010 he was a member of the Board of Croatian Literary Translators' Association; he is a member of Croatian Writers' Association and Croatian PEN Centre, as well the Board of Croatian Writers' Association.

Igor Štiks

Igor Štiks (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1977) is an author and scholar, working as a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. His fiction, literary criticism, and essays have appeared widely in journals and reviews in the former Yugoslavia and in numerous translations. He was co-editor of Anthologies of New Croatian Fiction (1999) and International Short Fiction in English (2001).

His novel A Castle in Romagna (2000) received the Slavić prize for Best First Book in 2000. The American edition of this novel was nominated for the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (2006). His second novel Elijah’s Chair (2006) received the Gjalski Award for Best Fiction Book of the Year in Croatia and Kiklop Award for the best literary work of the year 2006, and was translated into fifteen languages. Other works of short fiction and essays have appeared in English, French, German, Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish, Macedonian, and Slovene editions.

He completed a dual PhD in political philosophy at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and at Northwestern University. For his literary and public work, he received the French honor of Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Ivana Šojat

Ivana Šojat (Osijek, 1971) is a poet, novelist and literary translator. In 2000, she published her first book of poems Hyperbole, in 2003 followed by the book of poems Ascensions and in 2005 Phantoms. In 2006, she released a collection of short stories Like a Dog and essays And All the Masks Will Fall. In 2009 her highly praised novel Unterstadt was published, which deals with the fate and life paths of the Germans in Osijek in the 20th century.

Based on the novel Unterstadt a theater play was set in the Croatian National Theatre in Osijek. Her novel Šamšiel (2002) was awarded with the Charter of success at the manifestation Kozarčevi dani. As a literary translator Ivana Šojat translated numerous books from English and French into Croatian. She has lived in Belgium and Osijek.

 

Slobodan Šnajder

Slobodan Šnajder (Zagreb, 1948) is a Croatian writer and publicist. He graduated in Philosophy and English Studies from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He was co-founder and editor of the theatre journal Prolog as well as the editor of the editions published by Cekade. From January to June 1993, he was a columnist in the daily newspaper Glas Slavonije (Spelling book for the Melancholics), and, from January 1994 until 2013, he wrote a column in the daily newspaper Novi list called Dangerous Liaisons. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the left-wing magazine Novi Plamen.

Although Šnajder has been writing prose for a very long time, his first full-length novel Morendo was issued in 2012. He is the recipient of Marin Držić Award, the most respectable playwriting prize in Croatia, for his play How Dunda saved Her Country (2008). For his novel The Age of Brass (2015) he received numerous national and regional awards, such as the Meša Selimović Award, the Mirko Kovač Award, Kočićevo Pero, T-Portal Prize and Radomir Konstantinović Award.

Vladimir Stojsavljević

Vladimir Stojsavljević (Bjelovar, 1950) graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, Department for Directing. Prior to being appointed Assistant Minister of Culture, he held the office of Department Head for Culture in the City of Zagreb. He wrote numerous plays, radio dramas and children’s theatre pieces.

Some of his most relevant plays are The Book Thief, Katarina Zrinska of the Frankopan Family and Norwegian Forests, for which he won a number of awards. His book Summer War Journal (1991) is considered to be the first prose piece about the war in Croatia.

His dramas have been performed in theatres in Ljubljana, Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Čakovec, Varaždin and on the Croatian Radio. He collaborates with numerous international festivals and institutions, including British Council and Edinburgh Festival.

Ivana Bodrožić

Ivana Bodrožić (Vukovar, 1982) attained her Master's degree in Philosophy and Croatian Language and Literature. In 2005, she published her first poetry collection entitled Prvi The First Step into Darkness as part of the Goran Award for young poets. Her poems have been included in numerous Croatian and international magazines and anthologies of contemporary poetry. Her first novel Hotel Tito was published in 2010, receiving high praises from both critics and audiences and was an ultimate Croatian bestseller. The novel has been published at numerous respectful publishing houses and received a prestigious Prix Ulysse for the best debut novel in France, as well as numerous important awards in Croatia and the Balkan area such as the Kočićevo Pero Award, Josip and Ivan Kozarac Award, and Kiklop Award for the best work of fiction in 2010.

As a co-scriptwriter, Ivana Simić Bodrožić is currently working on the film adaptation of the novel with the renowned Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić (the winner of Golden Bear 2006, Berlin International Film Festival). She has since published her second poetry collection Wildlife Crossing and a short story collection 100% Cotton, which has also received a regional award. Her novel We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day was awarded Balkan Noir prize for best crime novel written in 2016. In 2020 , Bodrožić published a novel Sons, Daughters which won the Meša Selimović Award. Sons, Daughters was also awarded the EBRD Literature Prize 2025.

Her works have been translated into English, German, French, Czech, Danish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Spanish, Italian and Macedonian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roman Simić

Roman Simić (Zadar, 1972) graduated with a degree in Comparative Literature and Spanish Studies from the University of Zagreb. He works as an editor at the literary magazine Relations and at the publishing house Fraktura; founder, organizer and Art Director of the Festival of the European Short Story. He participated in numerous international literary projects and residencies.

His publications include poetry collection In the Moment Like in the Wilderness (1996) which was a runner-up for the Goran Poetry prize, short story collections A Place Where We’re Going to Spend the Night (2000) and What We Fall in Love With (2005), which won the Jutarnji List Prize for the Best Croatian Book of Fiction, and Feed me (2012).

The latter collection won the Kiklop Award for the best Croatian book of fiction for 2012, and one of the stories from the collection won the annual Ranko Marinković Prize for the best short story. His short stories are translated into a dozen of languages and included in various anthologies of contemporary Croatian prose.

Main works/Translations
Sample translation
Links
Contacts