Milan Dekleva (born 17 October 1946) is a Slovene poet, writer, playwright, composer and journalist. Dekleva was born 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 ...

in 1946. He graduated in

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

from the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

and works as a journalist. He is best known for his poetry and has published over twenty peorty collections, a number of novels and collections of short stories. He was the first poet to publish

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

in Slovene (''Mushi mushi'', 1971). Many of his poems deal with the modern human condition in the absence of God. He received a number of awards including the Prešeren Foundation Award in 1989 for his poetry collection ''Zapriseženi prah'', the Grand Prešeren Award in 2006 for his lifetime poetry and writing work and the

Kresnik Award Kresnik is a literary award in Slovenia awarded each year for the best novel in Slovene of the previous year. It has been bestowed since 1991 at summer solstice by the national newspaper house Delo. The awards ceremony is normally held on Rožni ...

for his novel ''Zmagoslavje podgan'' (The Triumph of the Rats), also in 2006. He won the

Veronika Award The Veronika Award ( sl, Veronikina nagrada) is a literary award in Slovenia awarded each year for the best Slovene language, Slovene poetry collection of the year. It has been bestowed since 1997 by the Celje, Municipality of Celje at the Veronika ...

twice, in 2003 for his poetry collection ''V živi zob'' and again in 2008 for ''Audrey Hepburn, slišiš metlo budističnega učenca?''.

Poetry collections

* ''Mushi mushi'', (1971) * ''Dopisovanja'', (1978) * ''Nagovarjanja'', (1979) * ''Narečje telesa'', (1984) * ''Zaprišeženi prah'', (1987) * ''Odjedanje božjega'', (1988) * ''Panični človek'', (1990) * ''Preseženi človek: izreki'', (1992) * ''Kvantaški stihi'', (1994) * ''Šepavi soneti'', (1995) * ''Jezikava rapsodija; Improvizacija na neznano temo'', (1996) * ''Glej medenico cvetne čaše, kako se razpira'', (2001) * ''Sosledja'', (2001) * ''V živi zob'', (2003)

Plays

* ''Igra na vrhu'', (1993)

Prose

* ''Oko v zraku'' (Eye in the Sky), novel, (1997) * ''Pimlico'', novel, (1998) * ''Reševalec ptic'' (Bird Saviour), short stories (1999) * ''Zmagoslavje podgan'' (The Triumph of Rats), novel, (2005) * ''Izkušnje z daljavo'' (Experience of Distance), short stories, (2006)

References

Slovenian poets Slovenian male poets Writers from Ljubljana Slovenian dramatists and playwrights Journalists from Ljubljana Slovenian composers Male composers Living people 1946 births Prešeren Award laureates Kresnik Award laureates Veronika Award laureates University of Ljubljana alumni Musicians from Ljubljana Slovenian male musicians {{slovenia-writer-stub