[Toronto]

Tone Skrjanec
December 1, 2015, 8:00 pm
at The Art Bar

Reading alongside Iztok osojnik and Jana Putrle Srdic for their "three slovenian poets" tour.   Tone Škrjanec is a poet and translator. He has held positions such as program coordinator and organizer of poetry events for the Cultural And Art Centre France Prešeren, where he helped put together the 1994 Ljubljana poetry festival “The Tercets of Trnovo.” His poetry collections include The Blues of Swing, Sun On a Knee, Wind Pagodas, Knives, Copper, Skin, The Spirit of the Turtle Is Small and Very Old, Noises Are in the Air (Selected And Very Old Poems), and most recently Sweet Cakes (2015). His poetry has been published in Poland, Bulgaria, US and Croatia. He likes to collaborate with musicians (Jani Mujič, Ille) and some of these fusions of poetry and music have also appeared on the records A Bit of Noise and a Pinch of Salt (2003) as well as Catching the Rhythm, The Word in Voice and Sound. As a translator from English, Croatian, and Serbian, he is mainly focused on contemporary poetry. During the day, he enjoys green tea and likes a pint of good beer in the evening. Jana Putrle Srdić is a poet and intermedia art producer, occasional writer of art film reviews and translator of poetry who lives in Ljubljana. Poetically interested in the bizarre changes of the world we live in, she is never willing to give up the small, passing-by and ‘unimportant’. Personal statement is in her opinion radically important and the claim for one’s own intimacy has always been an unpleasant element in our world of collective demands. She has cooperated in different art projects that combine poetry with new media and has published three poetry books: Kutine (Quinces, 2003); Lahko se zgodi karkoli (Anything could happen, 2007), and To noč bodo hrošči prilezli iz zemlje (This night the beetles will come out of the ground, 2014), all published through the Centre for Slovenian Literature. Her writings are regularly included in Slovene literary magazines as well as abroad. Her poems have been translated into numerous languages and included in 15 Slovenian and world anthologies. Besides translating poetry from English, Russian and Serbian (including Robert Hass, Sapphire, Ana Ristović, and contemporary Russian poetry), she has worked as cultural manager for different organizations such as the Centre for Slovenian literature, Kapelica Gallery, and Zavod Gulag. Iztok Osojnik is a poet, fiction writer, literary scientist, essayist, editor, translator, artist, tour director, mountain climber, etc. So far he published 28 collections of poetry, 5 novels and 4 volumes of essays on literature, anthropology, and philosophy. He has published books of poetry in English: Alluminations (City Gallery of Arts of Ljubljana), And Some Things Happen for the First Time (Modry Peter, Canada 2001), Mister Today (Jacaranda Press, California 2004), New and Selected Poems (Sampark, New Delhi 2010) and Elsewhere (Pighog Press, Brighton 2011). His poems and essays have been translated and published in 25 languages. He was awarded with several national and international literary awards, most lately with the prestigious international award KONS 2011. More info here.