Kajetan Kovič

Kajetan Kovič
File:Kajetan Kovič 1957.jpg
Born	(1931-10-21)21 October 1931 Maribor, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia)
Died	Ljubljana, Slovenia
Occupation	poet, writer, journalist
Literary movement	Intimism
Notable works	Pesmi štirih, Ogenjvoda, Labrador, Ne bog ne žival, Moj prijatelj Piki Jakob, Maček Muri
Notable awards	Prešeren Award 1978 for his poetry collection Labrador Jenko Award 1993 for his poetry collection Sibirski cirkus

Kajetan Kovič (21 October 1931 – 7 November 2014) was a Slovene poet, writer, translator, and journalist.

Life

Kovič was born in Maribor in 1931 and spent his childhood in the small town of Poljčane and Hrastje–Mota near Radenci in eastern Slovenia. He graduated from high school in Maribor and received a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from the University of Ljubljana in 1956. He died on 7 November 2014.

Career

Kovič started writing poetry in high school, and he published his first poetry in 1948. He was best known for his poems and he wrote several bestselling children's books. Kovič also wrote political poetry, such as a poem in honor of Josip Broz Tito. He established himself as a translator of German, French, Czech, Hungarian, Croatian, Serbian, and Russian poetry into Slovene. He also translated the poems that France Prešeren wrote in German into Slovene.

Awards and recognition

Kovič won the Prešeren Foundation Award in 1967 for his poetry collection Ogenjvoda and the Grand Prešeren Award in 1978 for his poetry collection Labrador. In 1995 he was made a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Poetry collections

• Utonil bi (1948)
• Pesmi štirih (1953) co-authored with Janez Menart, Ciril Zlobec and Tone Pavček
• Prezgodnji dan (1956)
• Korenine vetra (1961)
• Ogenjvoda (1965)
• Vetrnice (1970)
• Mala čitanka (1973)
• Pesmi (1973)
• Labrador (1976)
• Dežele (1988)
• Poletje (1990)
• Letni časi (1992)
• Sibirski ciklus in druge pesmi raznih let (1992)
• Lovec (1993)
• Glas (1998)
• Vrt (2001)
• Kalejdoskop (2001)
• Pesmi (2003)
• Vse poti so (2009)

Prose

• Ne bog ne žival (1965)
• Tekma ali kako je arhitekt Nikolaj preživel konec tedna (1970)
• Iskanje Katarine (1987)
• Pot v Trento: prizori iz navadnega življenja Franca M. (1994)
• Profesor domišljije: ljubljanska zgodba (1996)
• Jutranji sprehajalec (2005)
• Sled sence zarje (2006)
• Mala nebesa (2008)

Children's books

• Franca izpod Klanca (1963)
• Zlata ladja (1969)
• Moj prijatelj Piki Jakob (1972)
• Maček Muri (1975)
• Zgodnje zgodbe (1978)
• Križemkraž (1980)
• Zmaj Direndaj (1981)
• Pajacek in punčka (1984)
• Križemkraž: zgodnje pesmi, zgodnje zgodbe in še malo mačje godbe (1991)
• Mačji sejem (1999)