Irena Žerjal (20 April 1940 – 2018) was a Slovene poet, writer and translator who also used the pen name Maja Tul in her early work. Žerjal was born in San Giuseppe della Chiusa () in Italy in 1940. She studied Slovene and Russian at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

. She taught at various Slovene language secondary schools in the

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

region. She writes poetry and short stories. She was married to the

public intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

, sociologist and politician

Jože Pučnik Jože Pučnik (9 March 1932 – 11 January 2003) was a Slovenian public intellectual, sociologist and politician. During the communist regime of Josip Broz Tito, he was one of the most outspoken Slovenian critics of dictatorship and lack of civil ...

from 1964 to 1969 and lived with him in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Germany, for a while.

Published works

Poetry

* ''Goreče oljke'' (Burning Olive Trees), 1969 * ''Topli gozdovi'' (Warm Forests), 1972 * ''Klišarna utopičnih idej'' (The Cliche Factory of Utopic Ideas), 1974 * ''Pobegla zvezda'' (The Fugitive Star), 1977 * ''Gladež'' (Famine), 1982 * ''Alabaster'' (Alabaster), 1984 * ''Let morske lastovice'' (Flight of the Sea Swallow), 1987

Prose

* ''Tragedijica na Grobljah'' (The Small Tragedy at Groblje), 1973 * ''Morje, ribe, asfalt'' (Sea, Fish, Asphaplt), co-author with Marija Mislej, 1976 * ''Burja in kamni'' (The Bora and Stones), co-author with Nadja Švara in Marija Mislej, 1987 * ''Magnetofonski trak'' (The Recording Tape), 1994

References

1940 births 2018 deaths Slovenian women poets Slovenian poets Slovenian translators Italian Slovenes University of Ljubljana alumni People from the Province of Trieste {{slovenia-writer-stub