Erica Johnson Debeljak (born 1961,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, U.S.) is an American- Slovenian writer and translator, an American expatriate living in

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 ...

Life

Erica Johnson studied in New York City, where she received a degree from financial economics and French literature. In early 1990s, she followed her later husband, Slovene poet

Aleš Debeljak Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to bala ...

, and moved from U.S. to Slovenia. They had three children together. She lives in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

Work

From 1987 to 1993, she worked as a financial analyst at the French government-owned

Banque Nationale de Paris BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

and as lender to the major

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

firms. After moving to Slovenia, she has worked as a translator and columnist for local newspaper

Delo ''Delo'' (russian: Дело) is a business oriented online media in Ukraine, belonging to ekonomika+ media holding. ''Delo'' was the first daily in Ukraine, publishing its real print circulation (13.000 - 15.000) and trying to introduce Western e ...

. Her essays and stories have also appeared in ''U.S. News & World Report'', ''Glimmer Train'', ''Prairie Schooner'', ''The Missouri Review'', ''Nimrod'', ''Epoch'', ''Common Knowledge'', and ''Eurozine''. ''Barren Harvest: The Selected Poems of

Dane Zajc Dane Zajc () (26 October 1929 – 20 October 2005) was a Slovenian poet and playwright. He served as president of the Slovene Writers' Association (1991–1995), and was awarded the prestigious Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement (1981). Toge ...

'', she translated in 2004, was published by White Pine Press. She has published a number of books both in Slovenian and English, including two memoirs (''Foreigner in the House of Natives'' and ''Forbidden Bread''), a biography of

Srečko Kosovel Srečko Kosovel () (18 March 1904 – 26 May 1926) was a Slovenian poet, now considered one of central Europe's major modernist poets.

titled ''Srečko Kosovel: Pesnik in jaz'', and a novel ''Anti-Fa cona''.Forbidden Bread
, ''North Atlantic Books Review''

Awards

* 2007 Family Matters Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Debeljak, Erica Johnson 1961 births Living people Writers from San Francisco American expatriates in Slovenia American translators English–Slovene translators American women writers 21st-century American women