Visiting Writer: Veno Taufer
On Thursday, January 10th, 2019, the students of the 4th grade prepared a meeting and a conversation with the poet and playwright, the beginner of modernism in Slovenia, Veno Taufer.
Veno Taufer was born in 1933. He is a Slovenian poet, playwright and translator. He studied comparative literature at The Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana in 1960 before becoming a BBC reporter covering the region around Slovenia, and then worked as a cultural editor for RTV Slovenia. He was the editor of the magazine 57, which played an important role when Slovenia exited Yugoslavia and gained independence. He was also a member of the editorial board of Perspektive magazine and organised the Vilenica International Literary Festival in 1986. Veno Taufer led the festival as president until 1998.
He participated in the writing of the Slovenian constitution in the early 90s and made a great contribution to the democratization and independence of Slovenia. He was a President of PEN, translated poetry and dramatics from English, Serbo-Croatian, wrote essays and theatrological articles.
He has received both the Prešeren and Župančič awards for this work relating to culture and also received the Sovretova award for translation work. He is a member of the European poetry academy. His literary opus includes 12 poetry collections and several plays.
He has translated foreign authors such as Eliot, Ezra Pound and Yeats. During his talk, Veno Taufer told us how they all had an influence on his own writing.
Sara Bradeško
Student, 4F