Barbara Pogačnik
(Slovenia, 1973)   
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Barbara Pogačnik

Barbara Pogačnik is a poet, translator and literary critic. Ze has a degree in Romance Languages and Literature from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne in Paris, where she graduated in literary translation. Her first volume of poetry Poplave (Inundations) was nominated for the Best First Book Award and the Jenko Prize.

 

Even more than richness, a true abundance characterizes the work of Barbara Pogačnik; it is such an eruption of ceaseless discoveries that it can be called hypermetaphorical. The horse in the appartment, the partly unbuttoned robe, de wooly knot in the throat, a plucked brow, blazing birds; enchanting images such as these, combined with many more, can form one single poem.

It is the world itself that speaks in this whirlpool of interwoven, energy-laden ideas, but as soon as that world – forever under existential distress, living with 'a jellyfish in the throat' – is interpreted, thought through and observed, time and space are thrown off balance. As if coming from an impersonal source, such is the way the feminine voice in Pogačnik's poems elucidates the world, never judging what it unveils; this is what you could perhaps call the 'hypersense' (l'hypersens) offered by this poetry.

Continuing the Slovenian tradition of impressionism (associated with Srečko Kosovel, among others) and extending what began with the works of Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014), Barbara Pogačnik lets a brilliant geyser well up in the baroque heart of Europe, with the lightness and clearness of champagne (the baroque drink par excellence, with its buoyant bubbles). 

Barbara Pogačnik's work has appeared in 26 languages and has been set to music as well. She participated in more than 40 different festivals in at least 20 countries and has been a writer in residence at mulitple international organizations. She is a member of numerous literary jury's and has translated works by more than 150 authors from French, English, Italian and Serbo-Croation into Slovenian and from Slovenian into French. 

 

© Alain Borer (Translated by Frank Keizer)

Bibliography

Poetry
Poplave (Inundations). Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, 2007
V množici izgubljeni papir (A Paper Lost in the Crowd). LUD
Literatura, Ljubljana, 2008
Modrina hiše /The Blue of the House (bilingual). Študentska založba,
Ljubljana, 2013
Alica v deželi plaščev (Alice in the Land of Coats). Mladinska knjiga,
Ljubljana, 2016
 
In Dutch:
Sluiers. LUD Literatura, Ljubljana, 2014, translated by Katjuša Ručigaj,
Ingrid Jooren, Mateja Seliškar-Kenda
 
Anthologies:
Le fleuve les regarde dans les yeux. SWA, Ljubljana, 2011
Four slovenian poets: In Unfriendly Weather. LUD Literatura, Ljubljana, 2011
Szesnaście poetek słoweńskich : antologia. SWA, Ljubljana, 2012
Padesáti hlasy hovořím. Nakladatelstvi Petr Štengl, Prague, 2013
La parole te retrouve. Beletrina Academic Press, Ljubljana, 2014
Poesia – bla, bla, bla dalla A alla …?. Edizioni Antony, Trieste, 2015
Et même quand le soleil. Eolienne, Bastia, 2015
Alchimia del sal. Editorial Amargord – Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, 2015

 




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