Vida Brest (true name Majda Peterlin) (21 July 1925 – 10 November 1985) was a Yugoslav

Slovene-language Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding speake ...

poet, writer, journalist, and teacher, best known for her

juvenile 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 ...

, often based on her own experiences as a young

Partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Brest was born in

Šentrupert Šentrupert (; german: Sankt Ruprecht''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 84.) is a village in the traditional Lower Carniola region in s ...

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region. Geography Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the no ...

in 1925. At the age of 17 she joined the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

and after the end of the Second World War became a journalist and teacher. She later devoted herself to writing, her main inspiration being her own experiences during the war, but also wrote fairy tales and children's stories. From a very early age she also wrote poetry, with her first poems being published by the Partisan press during the war. A selection of her best poems was published posthumously in 1995, selected and edited by

Ivan Minatti Ivan Minatti (22 March 1924 – 9 June 2012) was a Slovene poet, translator, and editor. He started writing poetry before World War II, but principally belongs to the first postwar generation of Slovene poets. He is one of th ...

. She won the

Levstik Award The Levstik Award ( sl, Levstikova nagrada) is a literary award in Slovenia awarded for achievements in children's literature. It has been bestowed since 1949 by the Mladinska Knjiga Publishing House, making it the first literary award established ...

in 1984 for her book of stories from the resistance entitled ''Majhen človek na veliki poti'' (A Small Man on a Big Road).

Published works

Poetry

* ''16 pesmi Vide Brest'' (16 Poems of Vida Brest), 1944 * ''Pesmi'' (Poems), 1947 * ''Mihčeve pesmi'' (Little Miha's Poems), 1951 * ''Teci, teci, soncu reci'' (Run, Run, Tell the Sun), 1986 * ''Tiho, tiho srce'' (Silent, Silent Heart), (selected and edited by

), 1995

Prose

* ''Pravljica o mali Marjetici, zajčku, medvedu in zlati pomladi'' (The Story of Little Margaret, the Bunny, the Teddy, and the Golden Spring), 1951,1958 * ''Ptice in grm'' (The Birds and the Bush), 1955, 1961 * ''Orehovo leto'' (The Year of the Walnut), 1955, 1972 * ''Popotovanje v Tunizijo'' (A Trip to Tunisia), 1967 * ''Veliki čarovnik Ujtata'' (The Great Wizard Ujtata), 1974 * ''Prodajamo za gumbe'' (We Sell Buttons), 1976 * ''Majhen človek na veliki poti'' (A Small Man on a Big Road), 1983 * ''Mala Marjetica in gozdni mož'' (Little Margaret and the Forest Man), 1985 * ''Teci, teci, soncu reci'' (Run, Run, Tell the Sun), (selected and edited by Niko Grafenauer), 1986

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brest, Vida 1925 births 1985 deaths Yugoslav writers Slovenian children's writers Yugoslav Partisans members Levstik Award laureates Ethnic Slovene people Yugoslav women writers Slovenian women children's writers Slovenian women poets 20th-century women writers 20th-century Slovenian poets Communist women writers People from the Municipality of Šentrupert Women in the Yugoslav Partisans