Slovenia🇸🇮
Anja Mugerli (1984) is a Slovene writer, proofreader and editor. She graduated with a degree in Slovenian Studies and has a master’s in performance studies and creative writing. Her writing is subtle, with great psychological insight into the protagonists of her stories.
Her debut, the short prose collection “Zeleni fotelj” was published in 2015 and shortlisted for the best debut book award (2015).
In 2017, she published the novel “Spovin”, which was nominated for the Kresnik Book Award (2018).
In 2021, her short prose collection “Čebelja družina” was shortlisted for the Novo mesto award and won European Union prize for literature and it is now translated in many languages (Croatian, Italian, Macedonian, Hungarian, Bulgarian etc.).
In 2023, she has published her second novel “Pričakovanja”.
Тhe film rights to her first novel were sold and she was featured at the 2019 First Novel Festival in Kiel, Germany.
She also writes plays, two of which have won awards at an international competition in Italy. She lives in Nova Gorica, on the border of Slovenia and Italy. She is fluent in English, Spanish and Italian.
Čebelja družina (Bee Family)
Translation Davor Stojanovski
"Bee Family" is a collection of seven stories. Each story represents a specific ritual or custom from Slovenian tradition, which in Mugerli's work is placed in a different context or modern framework, thus acquiring new roles and meanings. The central theme of each story is the family. whether it's unrealized ("The Apple Woman"), united and then separated ("Fiery Tongues"), or something that under normal circumstances could become real ("The Bee Family"). All stories, except one, take place in the present, but due to the rituals and atmosphere, they feel timeless. With linguistic virtuosity, the author introduces us to a world we don't recognize, even though we live in it.
Reading these stories, we constantly cross various boundaries – linguistic, cultural, political, geographical, but also those set between reality and the unconscious.
In 2021, " Bee Family" received the prestigious European Union Prize for Literature.