Zofka Kveder (22 April 1878 – 21 November 1926) was a writer, playwright, translator and journalist who wrote in Slovene and later in life also in Croatian. She is considered one of the first Slovene women writers and

feminists Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...

. Kveder 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 ...

and spent most of her childhood in rural

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 n ...

before she was sent to a convent school in

. In 1897 she found work in Ljubljana. In 1899 she first moved to

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

and then to Bern where she enrolled in the university, but was unable to support herself financially and headed for

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and then

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. There she met her future husband Vladimir Jelovšek, a Croatian medical student with whom she moved to Zagreb in 1906. She later remarried to the Croatian politician Juraj Demetrović. In Prague she published her first book of short stories ''Misterij žene'' (The Mystery of a Woman). An anthology of her work was published by the ''Založba'' ''Belo-modra knjižnica'', which was run by noted feminist and publisher Minka Krofta. It was the first women's publishing house in Slovenia. In Slovene literature her encouragement of young writers at the time such as Prežihov Voranc and

France Bevk France Bevk () (17 September 1890 – 17 September 1970) was a Slovene writer, poet and translator. He also wrote under the pseudonym Pavle Sedmak. Biography Bevk was born in the mountain village of Zakojca (Coizza during Italian rule, now p ...

in her role as the editor of the Prague published journal ''Domači prijatelj'' is also acknowledged. She also translated some of

Janko Kersnik Janko Kersnik (4 September 1852 – 28 July 1897) was a Slovene writer and politician. Together with Josip Jurčič, he is considered the most important representative of literary realism in Slovene. Biography Kersnik was born in Brdo Ma ...

and

Ivan Cankar Ivan Cankar (, ) (10 May 1876 – 11 December 1918) was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet, and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slov ...

's work into German as well as

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

and Croatian plays into Slovene.Helga Glušič, ''Sto Slovenskih Pripovednikov'' (Ljubljana: Prešernova družba, 1996)

Selected works

* ''Misterij žene'', short stories (1900) * ''Odsevi'', short stories (1902) * ''Iz naših krajev'', short stories (1903) * ''Iskre'', short stories (1905) * ''Njeno življenje'', novel (1914 and 1918) * ''Vladka in Mitka'', (1927) * ''Vladka, Mitka in Mirica'', (1928) * ''Hanka'', novel (1917 in Croatian, 1938 in Slovene) * ''Veliki in mali ljudje'', (1960)

Plays

* ''Ljubezen'', (1901) * ''Amerikanci'', (1908) * ''Unuk Kraljevića Marka'' (1922) * ''Arditi na otoku Krku'', (1923)

References

External links

*
1878 births 1926 deaths Slovenian feminists Writers from Ljubljana Slovenian women writers {{slovenia-writer-stub