Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
n publishing house, originally founded in 1996 by students of the University of Ljubljana as the Študentska Založba (Student Publishing House). Co-founders include notable Slovene authors such as
Aleš Šteger
Aleš Šteger (born 31 May 1973) is a Slovene poet, writer, editor and literary critic. Aleš belongs to a generation of writers that started to publish right after the fall of Yugoslavia. His first poetry collection Šahovnice ur (1995) was so ...
and Mitja Cander. It has operated the Beletrina Bookshop, which opened in Ljubljana in 2010, since 2014. In addition to physical books, it also publishes the online magazines AirBeletrina and Versopolis, and hosts two literary festivals, Days of Poetry and Wine Festival and Fabula Festival, since 2004. Through the AirBeletrina literary journal, it hosts a short-story contest; the publishing house also organizes creative writing courses. In 2013, Beletrina launched ''Biblos.si'', the first Slovene eLibrary and eBookshop. Beletrina also issues recordings of authors reading from their own work. As a non-profit publisher, it receives funding from the Slovenian government with an aim to "foster a literary atmosphere throughout Slovenia". Beletrina also receives subsidies from the European Union, the Slovene Public Agency for Books (JAK), and different ministries of culture in Slovenia.
History
In 1981 the Socialist Youth League of Slovenia (UK ZSMS) branch at the University of Ljubljana founded the publishing house Krt, an acronym for Knjižnica Revolucionarne Teorije (Library of Revolutionary Theory), meaning ''mole'' in English. Many of the early writers and editors of Krt's works were both faculty and students of the university. Krt began publishing anarchist texts with an intent to subvert the orthodoxy of government and inspire a sense of influence among students and youth in Ljubljana. Topics of publication included the
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in
the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...
of 1968, a history of the Slovene youth movement, the meaning of punk in Slovenia, and other politically charged topics that would have likely not been printed otherwise. Other publications included anthologies of Western political and social theorists translated into Slovene.
The parent organization of Beletrina, Študentska Organizacija Univerze (
Ljubljana Student Organisation
The Student Organisation of the University of Ljubljana (ŠOU of Ljubljana) is a student organization based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is the largest student organization in Slovenia and one of the largest in Europe. Its representative body is elec ...
), is the successor of the UK ZSMS and undertakes a wide variety of publishing activities and initiatives, including textbooks, criticism, and literature. Since its spin-off into a private publishing institute, Beletrina has focused on publishing prose by outstanding young and upcoming Slovene authors. The reason for the separation of Beletrina from ŠOU was given as finances; namely that ŠOU was unable to provide the financial support necessary for the normal operations of the publishing house to continue. However the privatization of the publishing house sparked concerns about allocation of public funds for the support of culture and art to a private institution After spinning off into Beletrina, the founding rights were transferred from ŠOU Ljubljana to nine individuals, divided between Slovene authors and founders from the former Študentska Založba: the authors Andrej Brvar, Milan Dekleva, Niko Grafenauer, Milan Jesih and Veno Taufer, and the founders
Aleš Šteger
Aleš Šteger (born 31 May 1973) is a Slovene poet, writer, editor and literary critic. Aleš belongs to a generation of writers that started to publish right after the fall of Yugoslavia. His first poetry collection Šahovnice ur (1995) was so ...
, Mitja Čander, Tomaž Gerdina and Marko Hercog. The inclusion of the five well-known Slovene authors was intended to act as a guarantee of maintaining high standards for publication and an assurance to act in the public interest.
Publications
The publication focus of Beletrina has evolved over time, from chapbook translations excerpted from longer works to book-length translations in full. Publishing approximately 50 titles per year, Beletrina focuses on original works by Slovene authors as well as international authors in translation. When choosing works to be translated, the focus is placed on the "most important works of world literature that are still missing in Slovene translation". Many of the works and authors translated come from the long- and short-lists of major literary awards such as the
Nobel Prize in Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
, the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
, and the European Union Prize for Literature. Beletrina has also partnered with publishers outside of Slovenia to publish anthologies of Slovene writers for English-speaking readers.
Notable Slovene authors published by Beletrina include: Drago Jančar,
Gabriela Babnik
Gabriela Babnik (born 1979) is a Slovene writer, literary critic and translator. She has published three novels and her journalistic literary and film criticism regularly appears in national newspapers and magazines in Slovenia.
Babnik was born ...
,
Dino Bauk
Dino Bauk (born 1972) is a Slovenian lawyer and writer. A former civil servant, he achieved literary prominence with his debut novel ''The End. And Again'' (''Konec. Znova'', 2015). The book won the Best Debut Award at the Slovenian Book Fair and ...
,
Jurij Hudolin
Jurij Hudolin (born 29 May 1973) is a Slovene poet, writer, columnist and translator. He has published a number of poetry collections and novels and is known for the rich language he uses and a rebellious rejectionist stance towards the world.
...
Vitomil Zupan
Vitomil Zupan (18 January 1914 – 14 May 1987) was a post-World War II modernist Slovene writer and Gonars concentration camp survivor. Because of his detailed descriptions of sex and violence, he was dubbed the Slovene HemingwayBronja Žakelj, Vlado Žabot, Goran Vojnović,
Alojz Ihan
Alojz Ihan (born 23 July 1961) is a doctor, specialist in medical microbiology and immunology from Slovenia. Beside his medical profession he is also an acclaimed poet, writer, essayist and editor.
Ihan was born in Ljubljana in 1961 and studie ...
Lojze Kovačič
Lojze Kovačič (9 November 1928 – 1 May 2004) was a Slovene writer. His novel ''The Newcomers'' ( sl, Prišleki) is often considered one of the most important Slovene novels of the 20th century and has been translated into German, French, Sp ...
,
Jani Virk
Jani Virk (born 4 March 1962) is a Slovene writer, poet, translator and editor. He writes poetry, short stories, essays, novels and scripts and translates from German into Slovene.
Virk was born in Ljubljana in 1962. He studied at the German a ...
,
Suzana Tratnik
Suzana Tratnik is a Slovenian writer, translator, activist, and sociologist. She has published seven short-story collections, four novels, a play, a children’s picture book, two works of nonfiction, and an essay collection. Her books and short s ...
Dušan Šarotar
Dušan Šarotar (born 16 April 1968) is a Slovenian writer, essayist, literary critic and editor.
He was born in the town of Murska Sobota in northeastern Slovenia. He studied sociology and philosophy at the University of Ljubljana. He has publ ...
Mojca Kumerdej
Mojca Kumerdej (born 1964) is a Slovene writer, philosopher and critic. She works as the cultural chronicler for the daily newspaper ''Delo''.
Biography
Kumerdej graduated in philosophy and sociology of culture from the University of Ljublja ...
, and Feri Lainšček. Foreign authors published by Beletrina include
W. G. Sebald
Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Sebald or (as he preferred) Max Sebald, was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by literary critics as one of the g ...
,
Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pr ...
,
Marguerite Yourcenar
Marguerite Yourcenar (, , ; born Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; 8 June 1903 – 17 December 1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist and essayist, who became a US citizen in 1947. Winner of the ''Prix Fem ...
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
,
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
,
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
, and
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
Arendt was born ...