On 11th December we commemorated 100th death anniversary of Ivan Cankar, one of the most important Slovenian authors of all times, a modernist in the European literary tradition. The date marks the end of the so called Cankar’s year in Slovenia, which was celebrated through numerous new publications of his works and events. He is considered to be the author whose works capture the prevailing trends of his time perfectly but possess contemporary resonance too.
On this occasion an English translation of Cankar’s Images from Dreams translated by Erica Johnson Debeljak and Jasmin B. Frelih was published in the book series Litteræ Slovenicæ by the Slovene Writers’ Association. The book, which comes in a beautiful gift-edition, also contains paintings by Mitja Ficko.
There are two more English translations coming up in early 2019: a new book by Boštjan Videmšek, a long-time war reporter for Slovenia’s leading daily newspaper Delo, Dispatches from the frontlines of humanity: A book of reportage (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019) and Fragma, a short story collection by Mojca Kumerdej (Dalkey Archive Press 2019). Kumerdej’s previous book, her epic novel The Harvest of Chronos (Istros books, 2017) has just been longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2019. Both her books were translated by Rawley Grau. Her novel will also be launched in Germany by Wallstein Verlag (Chronos erntet, translated by Erwin Köstler) in early spring.
Feri Lainšček's novel about four generations of a Roma family The Untachable: A Gipsy Myth was published in Polish and Spanish. Jasmin B. Frelih, the EU Literary Prize winner, got an English translation of his novel In/Half.
We have two new Croatian translations: No Matter How – Kako god by Polona Glavan was translated by Jagna Pogačnik and published by Hena publishing house, Dry Season – Sušno doba by Gabriela Babnik was translated by Anita Peti-Stantić and published by Sandorf.
A Lithuanian translation of Goran Vojnović’s Yugoslavia, my Country – Jugoslavija, mano tėvynė was published by Kitos Knygos in Laima Masytė's translation. The Italian translation of the same novel (Yugoslavia, terra mia, Forum Editrice, translated by Patrizia Raveggi) received the “Latisana per il Nord-Est” award.
An Italian translation of A song for Lira – Canto per una lira, a poetry collection by Bina Štampe Žmavc was published by Bibliotheka Edizioni. The collection was translated by Michele Obit, the same as Miha Mazzini’s book The Erased – I cancellati, which was published by Bottega Errante Editioni earlier this year. There is also a movie filmed after the book: Erased.
We are expecting some children’s books in early 2019 too: a German translation of Jana Bauer’s Scary Fairy – Die kleine Gruselfee (S. Fischer Verlag, 2019) and Manica K. Musil’s Stan the Elephant published in Hindi by Jugnoo Prakashan and in Russian by A walk through history publishing house, which will also publish her book Robbie the Lion.
The internationally acclaimed illustrator Maja Kastelic got some new translations of her beautiful silent book The Boy and the House - in Canada and Russia. The same goes for Lila Prap and her distinguished picture books - translations of new titles are now available in Canada (Firefly) and China (Guangxy University Press, Beijing Science and Technology Publishing).