Drago Jan\u010dar was born in Maribor, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia) in 1948. He studied Law there and was editor-in-chief of the student journal \u00bbKatedra\u00ab. Later, in Ljubljana, he met intellectuals and artists who were also members of the opposition, including the poet and resistance fighter Edvard Kocbek; his long-lasting friendship with the Trieste author Boris Pahor also began at that time. In the late 1970s, Jan\u010dar worked as a film dramaturgist. In 1980 he became the editor-in-chief of the Slovenian publishing house matica in Ljubljana and cofounded the influential literary and philosophical magazine \u00bbNova revija\u00ab. From 1987 to 1991 he was the President of the Slovenian PEN Centre. He struggled for the democratization of his country and published numerous essays and reports about the Bosnian war.<\/p>\n
Jan\u010dar\u2019s career as a writer goes back to his youth, when his early texts were published by the weekly magazine \u00bbMladina\u00ab. His \u0153uvre consists of several volumes of short prose, novels, plays, and essays about political, historical, and cultural topics. His early novel \u00bbGaljot\u00ab (1978; Eng. \u00bbThe Galley Slave\u00ab, 2011) is set in the 17th<\/span> century and written in a brilliant and dense style. Its hero suffers from the Inquisition and the plague. The historical subject matter can be read as a parable of the repression of present times. In 2001, his renowned masterpiece \u00bbSeverni sij\u00ab (1984) was published in English as \u00bbNorthern Lights\u00ab. Jan\u010dar\u2019s most recent novel, \u00bbTo no\u010d sem jo videl\u00ab (2010; Eng. \u00bbI Saw Her That Night\u00ab, 2015), follows the fascinating life of a young woman who disappears in Slovenia in the confusion of the final days of World War II, but who lives on in the memories of five people who knew her.<\/p>\n Several international cultural institutions have bestowed awards on Jan\u010dar, including the Pre\u0161eren Prize (1993), the Kresnik Prize for the best Slovenian Novel of the Year (1998), and the Jean Am\u00e9ry Prize for Essays (2007). He also received the Prix Europ\u00e9en de Litt\u00e9rature for his life\u2019s work in 2012 and for \u00bbTo no\u010d sem jo videl\u00ab (fr. \u00bbCette nuit, je l\u2019ai vue\u00ab, 2014) the Prix du Meilleur livre \u00e9tranger for the Best Foreign Book in 2014. The author lives in Ljubljana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12538,"template":"","jct-role":[1080],"jct-origin":[530],"jct-ilb-years":[596,604,606,609,612],"class_list":["post-39487","authors","type-authors","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","jct-role-author","jct-origin-slovenia","jct-ilb-years-2002-en","jct-ilb-years-2010-en","jct-ilb-years-2012-en","jct-ilb-years-2015-en","jct-ilb-years-2018-en"],"yoast_head":"\n