Miklavž Komelj

Miklavž Komelj (born 1973 in Kranj, Slovenia) is a Slovenian poet, art historian, essayist, translator, theorist, and visual artist. He graduated in Art History from the University of Ljubljana, where he also earned a PhD with a dissertation on fourteenth-century Tuscan painting. Since the early 1990s, he has established himself as one of the most significant intellectual and literary voices in contemporary Slovenia.

Komelj is the author of numerous poetry collections, essays, and prose works, including Rosa, Hipodrom, Untitleable Names, Night Is More Abstract than N, Liebestod, and The Burning Book. His work is characterized by a unique synthesis of lyricism, philosophy, political thought, and art theory, often engaging with history, the avant-garde, and revolutionary artistic movements.

Alongside his literary practice, Komelj is recognized as one of the leading scholars of Partisan art and the Yugoslav Surrealist movement. He has published influential studies such as How to Think Partisan Art? and Yugoslav Surrealists Here and Now. As a translator, he has introduced Slovenian readers to the works of authors including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Fernando Pessoa, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Walter Benjamin.

He is the recipient of several major Slovenian literary awards, including the Jenko Prize, the Prešeren Fund Award, and the Rožanc Award. His poetry and essays have been translated into numerous European languages, and he is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary Slovenian authors and cultural thinkers