Slovene guests at Vilenica 2019

Mohamad Abdul Al Monaem, Palestine, Syria, Slovenia

Mohamad Abdul Al Munem Photo: Julia Minet

Mohamad Abdul Al Monaem (1965) is a poet, writer and a former publisher. He used to have a publishing house in Aleppo. He published works by authors from around the world, also ones that were not close to Assad’s regime, which is why his life was endangered on several occasions. In 2016 he immigrated to Europe. He remained in Slovenia and soon started to participate in cultural activities in Ljubljana. He recently published a trilingual poetry collection Enaindvajset žensk iz Ljubljane (Twenty-one Women from Ljubljana, 2018) and is also writing new works.

Jasmin B. Frelih Photo: Maj Pavček

Jasmin B. Frelih, Slovenia

Jasmin B. Frelih (1986) studied comparative literature and history at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. His first novel Na/pol (In/Half, 2013) is set in a futuristic, robotised and post-Internet future and it received the Best First Book Award and EU Prize for Literature. He is also the author of a short story collection, Ideoluzije (Tiny Ideologies, 2015), and an essay collection Bleda svoboda (Pale Freedom, 2018), which received the Rožanc Award. He has translated selected Slovenian authors into English.

Nataša Kramberger Photo: Daniele Croci

Nataša Kramberger, Slovenia

Nataša Kramberger (1983) is a writer, columnist and an eco-farmer. She received the EU Prize for Literature in 2010 for her first novel Nebesa v robidah (Heaven in a Blackberry Bush). In her latest novel, Primerljivi hektarji (Comparable Hectares), she writes about own experiences of a young farmer, childhood and life in Berlin. In the summertime she lives in Jurovski Dol village and runs the Zelena centrala (Green Central) eco-art collective. In the wintertime she lives in Berlin where she runs the Slovenian-German cultural association Periskop.

Ace Mermolja Photo: Damjan Balbi

Ace Mermolja, Slovenia, Italy

Ace Mermolja (1951) is a poet and writer. He worked as a journalist for daily newspaper Primorski dnevnik in Trieste and the weekly magazine Novi Matajur in Čedad until his retirement. He has also been active in different Slovenian organisations in Italy where he advocated for the rights of Trieste Slovenians. He wrote eleven poetry collections, a play, and several non-fiction works. In his last poetry collection, Čivk duše (The Tweet of the Soul, 2017), he critically addresses migrant questions, xenophobia, the attitude to homeland, and Slovene-Italian co-habitation.