Anton "Tone" Seliškar (1 April 1900 – 10 August 1969) was a Slovene writer, poet, journalist and teacher. He published poetry, short stories and novels and is also known for his

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

. Together with

Mile Klopčič Mile Klopčič (16 November 1905 - 19 March 1984) was a Slovenian poet and translator. Together with Tone Seliškar, he is considered as the foremost representative of Slovenian literature, Slovene social realist poetry of the 1930s and 1940s. He ...

, he is considered the foremost representative of Slovene

social realist Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

poetry of the 1930s and 1940s. Seliškar 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 are ...

in what was then

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

in 1900 as the youngest child in a family of seven children. He became a teacher and worked in

Dramlje Dramlje (; german: Sankt Egidi) is one of the most populous settlements in the Municipality of Šentjur, in eastern Slovenia. The settlement, and the entire municipality, are included in the Savinja Statistical Region, which is in the Slovenian po ...

Trbovlje Trbovlje (; german: Trifail''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 58.) is Slovenia's tenth-largest town, and the seat of the Municipality ...

and

. At the encouragement of

Prežihov Voranc Prežihov Voranc (10 August 1893 – 18 February 1950) was the pen name of Lovro Kuhar, a Slovene writer and communist political activist. Voranc's literary reputation was established during the 1930s with a series of Slovene novels and short ...

Seliškar became an activist in the Slovene Liberation Front in 1942 and in 1943 joined the partisans. He used the motif of life in the partisans in many of his later works. After the war he worked as a journalist and editor. In 1947 he won the

Prešeren Award The Prešeren Award ( sl, Prešernova nagrada), also called the Grand Prešeren Award ( sl, Velika Prešernova nagrada), is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia. It is awarded each yea ...

for his story ''Tovariši'' (Comrades). The public library in

is named after Seliškar. Slovene composer Breda Šček set Seliškar’s works to music.

Youth literature

References

1900 births 1969 deaths Slovenian male poets Yugoslav Partisans members Levstik Award laureates Ethnic Slovene people Writers from Ljubljana 20th-century Slovenian poets Prešeren Award laureates {{slovenia-writer-stub