Klemen Pisk (born 31 July 1973) is a Slovenian poet, writer, translator and musician.

Life and work

In the mid-1990s, Pisk was a member of the editorial staff of the main Slovene student newspaper Tribuna. While studying Slavistics in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, he devoted most of his time to the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. As a poet, he entered the Slovenian literary scene with his first collection ''Labas vakaras'' (Good Evening, 1998), followed by ''Visoko in nagubano prapočelo'' (High and Wrinkled Primordial Substance, 2000) and ''Mojster v spovednici'' (Master in the Confessional Box, 2002). From 2000 to 2004, he wrote book reviews for the daily newspaper

Delo ''Delo'' () is a business oriented online media in Ukraine, belonging to ekonomika+ media holding. ''Delo'' was the first daily in Ukraine, publishing its real print circulation (13.000 - 15.000) and trying to introduce Western editorial and b ...

and

Radiotelevizija Slovenija Radiotelevizija Slovenija () – usually abbreviated to RTV Slovenija, RTV SLO (or simply RTV within Slovenia) – is Slovenia's national public broadcasting organization. Based in Ljubljana, it has regional broadcasting centres in Koper and Ma ...

(Radio-Television Slovenia). Pisk's short story Vilnius was published in the American literary journal Fiction Fix in 2009 and received the Editor's Choice Award. In July 2012, he performed at the

Authors' Reading Month Authors' Reading Month is the largest Central European literary festival running annually since 2000. The organiser is the Větrné mlýny Publishers, (Brno, Czech Republic) and the festival takes place every July 1–31. Every day 2–3 readings ...

festival, which was organized by the Czech publishing house Větrné mlýny which took place in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

and

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

. In 2014, he was chosen as a resident of Villa Sarkia in

Sysmä Sysmä () is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is situated in the Päijät-Häme regions of Finland, region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . Ne ...

by the Finnish culture association Nuoren Voiman Liitto. Pisk's literary works have been translated into many languages and published in more than 20 foreign literary magazines (Manuskripte, Lichtungen,

Lituanus ''Lituanus'' is an English language quarterly journal dedicated to Lithuanian and Baltic languages, linguistics, political science, arts, history, literature, and related topics. It is published by the non-profit Lituanus Foundation, Inc., and ha ...

, Tvar, Arkadia, Fiction Fix etc). Translations of his books were published in Poland,

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and in the United States. In the spring of 2003, he received the Institute of Cultural studies' scholarship in Warsaw as a literary translator from Polish. From 2006 to 2009, he lived in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

where he was perfecting his

Lithuanian language Lithuanian (, ) is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic languages, Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of t ...

. In 2009 he attended the 2nd World Congress of Translators of

Polish Literature Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Latin, ...

. In October 2015, he received the Award of Lithuanian Cultural Institute for merit at the promotion of

Lithuanian literature Lithuanian literature () concerns the art of written works created by Lithuanians throughout their history. History Latin language A wealth of Lithuanian literature was written in Latin, the main scholarly language in the Middle Ages. The edi ...

in the world. He is a singer, guitarist and author of most songs for the band Žabjak Trio, their published albums include ''Doktor piska počasni sving'' (The Doctor Pipes the Slow Swing) and ''Aristokrat'' (Aristocrat, 2004).

Selected bibliography

Source Poetry * ''Labas vakaras'' (Good evening), 1998 * ''Visoko in nagubano prapočelo'' (High and Wrinkled Primordial Substance), 2000 * ''Mojster v spovednici'' (Master in the Confessional Box), 2002 Short stories * ''Pihalec'' (The Blower), 2008 Radio drama * ''Lahko noč, Matija Čop'' (Good night, Matija Čop), 1997 * ''Ose pa ne letijo'' (And the Wasps Don't Fly), 1999 * ''Pihalec'' (The Blower), 2012 Literary critics * ''Stihi pod nadzorom'' (The Poems under Control), 2004 Translated works * ''Tych kilka słów'' (translated into Polish by Marcin Mielczarek), 2005 * ''Pustovník a vlk'' (translated into Slovak by Saša Poklač in Miloslav Vojtech), 2009 * ''Vilnius'' (translated into English by Shay Robert Wood), 2010 * ''Za krzakiem majaczącego ślimaka'' (translated into Polish by Marlena Gruda), 2015 * ''Foukač'' (translated into Czech by Petr Mainuš), 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pisk, Klemen 1973 births Living people People from Kranj Slovenian male short story writers Slovenian short story writers Slovenian translators Slovenian poets Slovenian male poets Slovenian musicians