Olja Savičević Ivančević

Olja Savičević Ivančević (Split, 1974) is one of the best Croatian contemporary authors and a representative of the so called ‘lost generation’. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science in Zadar. Her first poetry collection was published when she was 14 years old, and since then, she published twelve works: six poetry collections, a short story collection, two novels and three picture books.

Politically and socially engaged, Olja’s work has been included in a number of Croatian anthologies and international selections. Her writing has been translated into 11 languages, with excerpts of her prose and poetry translated and published into over 30 languages world-wide. For her works, Olja received a number of coveted national, regional and international awards. In 2020, her novel Farewell, Cowboy was awarded the French award Prix du premiere for the best debut novel translated in French. Farewell, Cowboy was wonderfully received by readers as well: a great success in the region, the book was adapted into a stage play.

Her second novel, Singer in the Night, received the British Pen Award. Her short stories collection To Make a Dog Laugh won the prize for best author under thirty-five awarded jointly by Vijenac. The poetry collection Mamasafari and Other Things was short-listed for the ‘Kiklop Award for Best Collection of 2012’, awarded annually by the Pula Book Fair.

Reviews of Olja’s works have been published in the following newspapers and magazines: The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, Berliner Zeitung, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, La Republic, The Independent, The Irish Times, Corriere della Serra, The Atlantic, The Publisher Weekly, De Volkskrant, Jelenkor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edo Popović

Edo Popović (Livno 1957) studied Comparative Literature and South Slavic Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Studies in Zagreb. He is the co-founder of the literary magazine Quorum and of the Festival of Alternative Literature (FAK). Several of his books have been published in Germany by Voland & Quist.

His debut novel Midnight Boogie (1987) became a generation´s cult book. In the years between 1991 and 1995 he was Croatia´s most noted war reporter. “War is not the key for understanding my prose. There is no universal key. Each book is unique, as any human being, any squirrel, any sip of tea. Literature stirs from life – from places you have lived, jobs you have done, books you have read.”

 

Marko Pogačar

Marko Pogačar (Split, 1984) has published eleven books of poetry, essays and prose, for which he received Croatian and international awards. In 2014 he edited the Young Croatian Lyric anthology. He is an editor of Quorum, a literary magazine, and Proletter.me, web-magazine for cultural and social issues.

He was a fellow of, among others, Civitella Ranieri, Literarische Colloquium Berlin, Récollets-Paris, Passa Porta, Milo Dor, Brandenburger Tor, Internationales Haus der Autoren Graz,  Literaturhaus NÖ, Krokodil Belgrade and Poeteka Tirana fellowships. His books and texts appeared in more than thirty languages.

 

Zoran Pilić

Zoran Pilić (Zagreb, 1966) is a novelist, short-story writer and a poet. He has worked at a video store, a road maintenance company, Center for Autism in Zagreb, as well as for Motovun Film Festival and Zagreb Film Festival. His first short story collection Doggiestyle (2007) was adapted into a theatre play Sex, Lies and One Angel which was performed at the Zagreb Academy of Drama Arts in 2009.

His second novel Paper Devils was shortlisted for the prestigious Croatian literary award Jutarnji list and listed among the best novels in 2012 by the Croatian Ministry of Culture. Again in 2014, The Ministry listed his collection of short stories There Are No Elephants in Mexico as one of the best Croatian books of the year. His short story When Giants Walked the Earth won the European Short Story Festival Prize in 2015. He also writes book reviews and publishes a fiction editorial on Booksa.hr.

Sibila Petlevski

Sibila Petlevski (Zagreb, 1964) is a novelist, poet, playwright, performer, theatre scholar, editor, translator and university professor at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She is a member of l’Académie Européenne de Poésie, L’Académie Mallarmé, the International PEN, serving two mandates on the International PEN Board (2002-2007). She received the most prestigious national prize for literature and arts – Vladimir Nazor Award – for her poetry collection A Hundred Alexandrian Epigrams (1993).

Her play Ice General was awarded with international selection at Berliner Festspiele TT-Stückemarkt in 2005. She is also the recipient of the 1st Poeteka International Poetry Prize for her book Joined Faces (2005), T-portal Prize for Novel of the Year (2010) for Time of Lies. Her play Lyrebird was selected at 10th Women Playwrights’ International for a stage reading in Cape Town, South Africa in April 2015.

Some of her sonnets originally written in English appeared in D. Messerli’s anthology, together with F. T. Marinetti, Mayakovsky, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Raymond Queneau and others. Her musical drama Cagliostro Forever was short-listed for Verona and UNESCO international poetry and opera competition. Her poetry has been translated into more than fifteen languages.

(photo by Biljana Gaurina)


 

Robert Perišić

Robert Perišić (Split, 1969) is a prominent Croatian writer and journalist. He writes poetry, fiction and plays, both for theatre and the big screen; he wrote the screenplay for Dalibor Matanić's film Sto minuta Slave (100 Minutes of Glory, 2004). He worked as an editor of magazines Godine and Godine nove, and published literary reviews in the weekly magazine Feral Tribune.

His novel Our Man in Iraq (2007) was a bestseller in Croatia and received the prestigious Croatian literary award Jutarnji list. The German edition of the novel received Literaturpreis der Steiermärkischen Sparkasse 2011 in Graz, Austria, while the US edition won wide and unanimously positive press coverage. The following novel, No Signal Area, received brilliant reviews both in Croatia and in translation, with Jonathan Franzen and The New York Times and Kirkus Reviews praising Perišić for his narrative skills. In 2022, his novel A Cat at the End of the World was published simoultaneusly in Croatia and the US. 

His translated works have been published in UK, US, Sweden, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and Ethiopia.

 

Jurica Pavičić

Jurica Pavičić (Split, 1965) worked as a film critic and journalist for different Croatian newspapers. His first novel, Plaster Sheep (1997), a social thriller about the harbour city of Split during the Yugoslav war, is considered a ground-breaking novel in contemporary Croatian literature, marking the beginning of the so-called reality narrative. Swiss magazine Fact gave it third position on Top 10 list of the best crime/suspense novels of the year. Witnesses, a film based on this novel (directed by Vinko Brešan) was screened in competition of Berlin Film Festival, and won several international awards. Pavičić first theater play, Poisoner, won the national Marin Držić Award for best theater text.

In 2006, he published his fifth – and according to critics - best novel: Little Red Riding Hood (2006). From late 2000s on, Pavičić shifts toward writing short fiction. For his contributions to journalism, he was awarded with Marija Jurić Zagorka Award, Veselko Tenžera Award, Miljenko Smoje Award, and Croatian Journalists’ Association Award for journalist of the year.

His novel "Red Water" was first published in Croatian in 2017, and it received amazing reviews, winning Ksaver Šandor Đalski and Fric award, and being shortlisted for the coveted tportal and Meša Selimović prizes for best novel in 2017. It was also translated into German as “Blut und Wasser” (2020).

“Red Water” was translated into French by Olivier Lannuzel and published by Agullo, reaching now more than 15.000 printed copies. So far it received five prestigious awards: Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for the best translated crime novel in 2021, Le Point du Polar européen for best European crime novel by a European author, the Transfuge prize for best crime novel in translation awarded by the French monthly culture magazine, Prix Mystère de la critique for the best translated crime novel in 2022 (one of the oldest awards for crime fiction in France) and Prix Libr'à Nous, the French booksellers’ award.

 

 

 

 

Kristian Novak

Kristian Novak (Baden-Baden, 1979) graduated in Croatian and German Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in 2005 and earned his PhD from Postgraduate Linguistics Studies in 2011. He holds a lectureship with the Department of Croatian Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka and teaches at the Department of German Studies in Zagreb. Novak’s chief areas of research include historical sociolinguistics, multilingualism (Croatian–German language and culture contacts) and national identity.

Kristian Novak was standard member of Croatian karate national team from 1996 to 2009, winning a range of individual and team awards at national and global karate championships.

His highly acclaimed second novel Črna mati zemla (2013) was shortlisted for the Kiklop Award in 2013 and named the best fictional prose of the year by Jutarnji list. The novel won the 2014 T-portal Prize for best novel in 2013. His novel Gipsy, but the Fairest of Them All (2016) was awarded with Fran Galović Award, Ksaver Šandor Gjalski Award and T-portal prize.

His 2024 novel, The Case of My Own Peril, won all the major Croatian and regional prizes: Fric Award for Best Novel, Ksaver Šandor Gjalski Award for best work of prose, Vladimir Nazor Award for Literature and the Meša Selimović Award for best novel published in Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia.

 

 

 

 

Tanja Mravak

Tanja Mravak (Sinj, 1974) is a Croatian prose author. Her stories have appeared in magazines and portals Morsko prase, Tema, Zarez, and Split Mind. She won the first prize at the short story competition Ekran Priče 2005 and the second prize at the Pričigin Festival in 2010. Her work was included in the anthology Best Croatian Stories in 2005 and 2006.

Having won the first place in the Prozak Competition, Mravak published her first short story collection We Need to Talk (2010), for which she received The Slavić First Book Prize awarded by Croatian Writers' Association and Jutarnji list Award. Mravak is also the author of the play Fear.

Josip Mlakić

Josip Mlakić (Bugojno 1964) is a novelist and screenwriter. His first published work was a collection of short stories Puževa kućica (Snail’s Little House, 1997). His second novel Živi i mrtvi (The Living and the Dead) was released in 2002 and was awarded with V.B.Z. Literature Prize and Ksaver Šandor Gjalski Award.

He wrote the screenplay for his award-winning novel Živi i mrtvi, and the film was awarded with eight Golden Arenas at the 54th Film Festival in Pula in 2007. He also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning movie There (2003). His novels have been translated into English, German, Slovak and Slovenian.

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