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Tomaž Šalamun (July 4, 1941 – December 27, 2014) was a Slovenian poet who was a leading figure of postwar neo-
avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
poetry in
Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...
Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín ( , ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, ''The South (novel), The South'', was published in 1990. ''The Blackwater Lightship'' was short ...
(2004
The comet's trail
Guardian
and an internationally acclaimed absurdist. Martín López-Vega (201
La poesía total de Tomaz Salamun
El Cultural
His more than 50 books of Slovene poetry have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. His work has been called a poetic bridge between old European roots and America.Tomaz Salamun - Poet,philosopher, 'monster'
The Hour, 13 May 2001
Šalamun was a member of the
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members of the academy. Cultural significance Establis ...
. He lived in
Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...
, Slovenia, and was married to the painter Metka Krašovec.


Life

As members of the Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947), Šalamun's mother's family joined thousands of Slovenes who left their homes because of forced
Italianization Italianization ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is the spread of Italian culture, language and identity by way of integration or assimilation. It is also known for a process organized by the Kingdom of Italy to force cultural and ethnic assimilation of the nati ...
and moved from Italy to Yugoslavia, where he was born in 1941 in
Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
. His father's family came from
Ptuj Ptuj (; , ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, eighth-largest town of Slovenia, located in the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Styria (northeastern Slovenia). It is the seat of the City Municipality of Ptuj, Municipality of Pt ...
, where his grandfather had been a mayor.Robert Hass (2004) , Poetry International. After his family moved to
Koper Koper (; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, fifth-largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Slovenian Istria, Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, Koper is the main urban center of the Slovene coast. Port of Koper i ...
, the local high school teachers of French and Slovene aroused his interest in language. In 1960, he began to study
art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...
and history at
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 ...
where he graduated in 1965. His mother was an
art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...
,Tomaž Šalamun is this year's Vilenica festival author
Primorske Novice
his brother Andraž is an artist, and his two sisters Jelka and Katarina are a biologist and a literary historian respectively. Šalamun died on 27 December 2014 in Ljubljana.


Work

In 1964, as editor of the literary magazine ''Perspektive'', he published his iconoclastic poem "Duma '64" (Thought '64). When Ivan Maček, a
Titoist Titoism is a Types of socialism, socialist political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito and refers to the ideology and policies of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) during the Cold War. It is characterized by a br ...
hard-liner, saw the dead cat in the poem as a reference to himself (the Slovene word ''maček'' means 'cat'), ''Perspektive'' was banned and Šalamun was arrested. He spent five days in jail and came out something of a culture hero, but he refrained from including the poem in his first poetry book, which appeared in 1966 in a
samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...
edition, full of absurdist irreverence, playfulness, and wild abandon. Matthew Zapruder wrote the following about him and his work in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'':
There was no purer contemporary surrealist than the Slovenian poet Tomaz Salamun, whose poems are not designed to be interpreted but instead to act upon us, in order to open up in us a little dormant space of weirdness where we can hopefully feel more free.


Poetry collections translated into English

Several collections of Šalamun's poetry have been published in English, including ''The Selected Poems of Tomaž Šalamun'' (Ecco Press, 1988), ''The Shepherd, the Hunter'' (Pedernal, 1992), ''The Four Questions of Melancholy'' (White Pine, 1997), ''Feast'' (Harcourt, 2000), ''Poker'' ( Ugly Duckling Presse), ''Row!'' (Arc Publications, 2006), ''The Book for My Brother'' (Harcourt), ''Woods and Chalices'' (Harcourt, 2008, translated by Brian Henry), ''There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair'' (Counterpath, 2009), ''On the Tracks of Wild Game'' (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012), ''Soy Realidad'' (Dalkey Archive Press, 2014), ''Justice'' (Black Ocean, 2015), ''Andes'' (Black Ocean, 2016), ''Druids'' (Black Ocean, 2019), ''Opera Buffa'' (Black Ocean, 2022), and ''Kiss the Eyes of Peace: Selected Poems 1964-2014'' (Milkweed, 2024). American poets that influenced him include
Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...
,
John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...
, and
Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...
.


International reception


United States

In July 1970, he was personally invited to exhibit his work at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
in New York City. Šalamun spent two years at the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
, including one year in the
International Writing Program The International Writing Program (IWP) is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Since 2014, the program offers online courses to many writers and poets around the world. Since its inception in 1967, the I ...
from 1971 to 1972, and lived for periods of time in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
after that. From 2005 to 2007 he taught at the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
.


Slovenia

For a time, he served as Cultural Attaché to the Consulate General of
Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
in New York. Literary critic Miklavž Komelj wrote: "Šalamun’s inventiveness with language has, indeed, never been more dynamic than in his most recent books. But in this dynamism there is also a monotone quality, which the poet makes no attempt to hide. It is as if this ecstasy resulted from spinning endlessly in a circle, like the whirling dervishes—a religious order, incidentally, that was founded by the mystic
Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...
, one of Šalamun’s favorite poets....It seems that the intensity of Šalamun’s language lies precisely in the endless insistence of its pulsation."


Prizes

Šalamun won a Pushcart Prize, as well as Slovenia's Prešeren Fund Award and Jenko Prize. Šalamun and his German translator, Fabjan Hafner, were awarded the European Prize for Poetry by the German city of Muenster. In 2004, he was the recipient of Romania's Ovid Festival Prize.Tomaž Šalamun
s page on
Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( (SAZU)) is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members of the academy. Cultural significance Establis ...
website.


References


External links


Profiles

*Hass, Robert (2004) Poetry International.
Tomaž Šalamun bio
at Smith College Poetry Center.
Tomaž Šalamun bio
at Poetry Foundation website.


Work



on February 13, 2008: Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts'', Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Volume 7, No. 2 (Fall 2008)
Tomaž Šalamun reading
at University of Berkeley, UCTV.
Poems by Tomaz Salamun
Trans. Michael Thomas Taren, in Vol. 9 No. 2 of ''Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts''.

with interviews, in ''Transom'', Issue 3 (Spring 2012).


Interviews and review



in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''. *Translator and poet Phillis Levi
on Šalamun
Transom Journal. *Poet Brian Henr

Transom Journal

Transom Journal. *Lukács, Zsolt (2010) Tomaž Šalamun in mistično izkustvo: diplomsko delo (diploma at
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 ...
). *Poznanovič Omers, Tjaša (2002) Pesniške zbirke Tomaža Šalamuna iz mehiškega obdobja : diplomsko delo (diploma at
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 ...
). *Kušar, Meta (1999) Metafizična inteligenca in pesnik prekucuh: Tomaž Šalamun: Morje, Nova revija, Ljubljana. *Kušar, Meta (1982) Tomaž Šalamun: diplomsko delo (diploma at
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 ...
).
2008 ''Bomb Magazine'' discussion between Charles Simic & Tomaž Šalamun


2011 Symposium

*2011 Slovenska medkulturna neoavantgarda: poezija in svet Tomaža Šalamuna,
Koper Koper (; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, fifth-largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Slovenian Istria, Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, Koper is the main urban center of the Slovene coast. Port of Koper i ...
,
Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...
,
Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Salamun, Tomaz 1941 births 2014 deaths Slovenian male poets University of Padua Prešeren Award laureates Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath laureates University of Ljubljana alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts 20th-century Slovenian poets Surrealist poets International Writing Program alumni