Breda Smolnikar

Breda Smolnikar’s literary career resembles a Ionesco theatre play: after the publication, in the 1960s, of several of her children’s books by the most important publisher in Slovenia (Mladinska knjiga), she went on to publish her works herself and under the pseudonym �?gospa�? (�?Mrs.�?, a form of address banished from the official socialist vocabulary).

Her first adult fiction, Balada o divjem mleku (Ballad of Wild Milk) received much praise by critics and was even shortlisted for one of the major national awards, but was refused by the bookshops as �?too religious�? (for its dry, matter-of-fact descriptions of religious ceremonies). Her 1980s �?Stob�? trilogy, named after a village where the tales are set, explored recent history (especially that of World War II) in ways incompatible with the official historiography as well as bringing a new approach to short story form. The trilogy had critics compete in guessing the true author of these excellent texts; it also earned Smolnikar a three months’ suspended sentence.

In 1998, she published Ko se tam gori olistajo breze (When Up There Birches Are Greening), under her real name since the pseudonym had lost its power of provocation. The very same year, civil action was brought against her because somebody had �?recognized�? their parents in the tale’s protagonists and thought they had been �?misrepresented�?, especially in scenes portraying their sexual lives. The lawsuit and its sequels (appeals, reversals of sentence etc.) carried on for over eight years, most of which time the book was actually forbidden, and the fine imposed on the author threatened to bankrupt her. During that time, Smolnikar first organized a public burning of the �?sentenced�? book, then continued to publish versions of the litigious text: an �?expurgated�? edition; a locked book packed with material directly from the courtroom �?? while the trial was officially held in camera; a stuttering version; a surrealist tale of �?a village where the letter F is forbidden�? �?? oops �?? orbidden; and finally an audio version. After eight years, the initial sentence was reversed by the Constitutional Court. Immediately, a new edition of When Up There was published by Sanje.
Smolnikar is also author of several other books.