Goran Vojnović

Goran Vojnović (born 11 June 1980) is a Slovenian writer, poet, screenwriter and film director.^[1] He is best known for his 2008 novel Southern Scum Go Home (Slovene: Čefurji raus!) which won him numerous awards as well as a lawsuit filed by the Slovenian Police that was withdrawn a day later after media attention and public outrage at police filing charges for a work of fiction brought embarrassment to the Slovenian Ministry of Interior.^[2]

Goran Vojnović
Born	(1980-06-11) 11 June 1980 (age 42) Ljubljana, SFR Yugoslavia
Occupation	Writer, poet, screenwriter, film director
Notable works	Čefurji raus!, Jugoslavija moja dežela, Figa
Notable awards	Prešeren Foundation Award 2009 for Čefurji raus! Kresnik Award 2009 for Čefurji raus! Angelus Award 2020 for Jugoslavija, moja dežela

Vojnović was born in Ljubljana to a family of mixed Bosnian and Jewish descent. He studied at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. He published his first collection of poetry Lep je ta svet in 1998. His novel Čefurji raus! started out as an unfinished film script. It describes life of immigrant youth in the Fužine estate in Ljubljana, their everyday problems and cultural differences between locals and immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. For it he won the Prešeren Foundation Award^[3] and the Kresnik Award in 2009. It has been translated and published in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Czech,^[4] Romanian and Italian and excerpts translated into German and English.^[5]

His novel Jugoslavija, moja dežela (Yugoslavia, My Fatherland) was published in 2011 by Beletrina. The English translation was published in 2015 by Istros Books in the UK. His third novel Figa (The Fig Tree) was translated into English by Istros Books in 2020.^[6]

Published works

• Lep je ta svet, self-published poetry collection (1998)
• Čefurji raus! (Southern Scum Go Home!), novel (2008)
• Jugoslavija, moja dežela (Yugoslavia, My Fatherland), novel (2013)^[7]
• Figa (The Fig Tree ), novel (2016)^[8]

Works Translated into English

• Yugoslavia, My Fatherland (Istros Books, London, 2015)
• The Fig Tree (Istros Books, London, 2020)

References

1. "Slovene Writers' Association site". Live Literature Festival (in Slovenian). DSP Slovene Writers' Association. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
2. "Razžaljeni policisti zaslišali avtorja (Offended Police Interrogate Author)". newspaper (in Slovenian). Dnevnik 23 January 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
3. Slovenian Ministry of Culture, complete list of Prešeren Foundation Awards recipients^{[dead link]}
4. Traduki European network for literature and books site
5. Read Central Slovenian Literature in Translation site
6. "Yugoslavia, My Fatherland". istrosbooks.com. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
7. Press, Beletrina Publishing. "Goran Vojnović: Jugoslavija, moja dežela • Beletrina - beletrina.si". beletrina.si (in Slovenian). Retrieved 14 March 2018.
8. Publisher's site, Beletrina

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Goran Vojnović.

• Author's page on Istros Books' website (UK publisher)
• Interview with Goran Vojnovic at Eurochannel
• Author's page on Belatrina's website (Slovenian publisher)