Image of Tomaž Šalamun (Tomaz Salamun).

Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun was one of Europe’s most prominent poets of his generation and was a leader of the Eastern European avant-garde. He was born in Zagreb, Croatia and raised in Koper, Slovenia. Early in his career he edited the literary magazine Perspektive and was briefly jailed on political charges. He studied art history at the University of Ljubljana, where he found poetry suddenly, as a revelation, describing its arrival in a 2004 interview as “stones from the sky.”

Šalamun is the author of more than 50 collections of poetry in Slovenian and English. He published his first collection, Poker (1966), at the age of 25. His poetry, using elements of surrealism and polyphony, was influenced by the work of Frank O'HaraJohn AshberyCharles Simic, and Charles Baudelaire. His collections of poetry in English include The Selected Poems of Tomaž Šalamun (1998); The Shepherd, the Hunter (1992); The Four Questions of Melancholy (1997); Feast (2000), Ballad for Metka Krasovec (2001, translated by Michael Biggins), Poker (2008, translated by Joshua Beckman and Šalamun), Row! (2006), The Book for My Brother (2006), Woods and Chalices (2008, translated by Brian Henry), There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair (2009), and On the Tracks of Wild Game (2012). His most recent books, published in English posthumously, are Andes (2016) and Druids (2019), and Opera Buffa (2022). His poetry has been widely anthologized and translated into more than 20 languages.

Šalamun won the Jenko Prize, Slovenia’s Prešeren and Mladost Prizes, and a Pushcart Prize. Šalamun and his German translator, Fabjan Hafner, were awarded the European Prize for Poetry by the German city of Muenster. He was a Fulbright Fellow at Columbia University and taught occasionally in the United States. When he joined the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, he met the Finnish American poet Anselm Hollo, who later became one of Šalamun’s translators. His work has appeared in over seventy journals and magazines internationally and he has published 15 poetry collections in English.

Šalamun was a member of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art and lived in Ljubljana, Slovenia, until his death in late 2014.

Translations

Bibliography

  • Poker, Samizdat (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1966.
  • Namen Pelerine (title means "The Intention of the Pelerine"), Samizdat (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1968.
  • Romanje za Marusko (title means "Pilgrimage for Maruska"), Cankarjeva Zalozba, 1971.
  • Bela Itaka (title means "White Ithaca"), Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1972.
  • Amerika, Obzorja (Maribor) 1973.
  • Arena, Lipa (Koper), 1973.
  • Turbines: Twenty-one Poems, translated by Tomaz Salamun, Anselm Hollo, and Elliott Anderson, Windover Press University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA), 1973.
  • Snow, translated by Anselm Hollo, Bob Perelman, Michael Waltuch, and others, Toothpaste Press (West Branch, IA), 1973.
  • Sokol (title means "Falcon"), Mladinska Knjiga (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1974.
  • Imre, Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1975.
  • Druidi (title means "Druids"), Lipa (Koper), 1975.
  • Praznik (title means "Holiday" ), Cankarjeva Zalozba (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1976.
  • Zvezde (title means "Stars"), Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1977.
  • Metoda Angela (title means "Angel's Method"), Mladinska Knjiga (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1978.
  • Po Sledeh Divjadi (title means "On the Track Game"), Lipa (Koper), 1979.
  • Zgodovina Svetlobe je Oranzna (title means "The History of Sight Is Orange"), Obzorja (Maribor), 1979.
  • (With Svetlana Makarovic and Niko Grafenauer) Pesmi (title means "Poems"), Mladinska Knjiga (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1979.
  • Maske (title means "Masks"), Mladinska Knjiga (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1980.
  • Balada za Metko Krasovec, Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1981, translated as A Ballad for Metka Krasovec, Twisted Spoon Press, 2001.
  • Analogije Svetlobe (title means "Analogies of Light"), Cankarjeva Zalozba (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1982.
  • Glas (title means "Voice"), Obzorja (Maribor), 1983.
  • Sonet o Mleku (title means "Sonnet on Milk"), Mladinska Knjiga (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1984.
  • Soy Realidad (title means "I Am Reality"), Lipa (Kroper), 1985.
  • Ljubljanska Pomlad (title means "Ljubljana Spring"), Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1986.
  • Mera Casa, Cankarjeva Zalozba (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1987.
  • Ziva Rana, Zivi Sok (title means "Living Wound, Living Sap"), Obzorja (Maribor), 1988.
  • The Selected Poems of Tomaz Salamun, edited and translated by Charles Simic and others, Ecco Press (New York, NY), 1988.
  • Otrok in Jelen (title means "Child and Stag"), Weiser (Salzburg, Germany), 1990.
  • Painted Desert: Poems, translated by Michael Biggins, Bob Perelman, and Salamun, edited by Richard Seehus, Poetry Miscellany (Chattanooga, TN), 1991.
  • The Shepherd, The Hunter, Pedernal (Santa Fe, NM), 1992.
  • Ambra, Mihelac (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1995.
  • The Four Questions of Melancholy: New and Selected Poems, edited by Christopher Merrill, White Pine Press (Fredonia, NY), 1997.
  • Crni labod (title means "Black Swan"), Mihelac (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1997.
  • Knjiga za mojega brata (title means "The Book for My Brother"), Mladinska Knjiga (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1997.
  • Morje, Nova Revija (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1999.
  • Feast, translated by Joshua Beckman and others, edited by Charles Simic, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2000.

Also author of Riva. Contributor of poems and articles to periodicals, including Grand Street, Paris Review, Antaeus, Agni, Ploughshares, Boulevard, Partisan Review, Trafika, Chelsea, New American Review, Third Coast, Harvard Review, New Republic, Mississippi Review, Chicago Review, Cimarron Review, Esprit, and Akzente. Contributor of poems to anthologies, including New Writing in Yugoslavia, Penguin (New York, NY), 1971; East European Poetry, Ardis (Dana Point, CA), 1983; and Child of Europe, Penguin (New York, NY), 1991. Also translator of works, including (with David Senar) Dvajset let pzneje, by Alexandré Dumas, Obzorja (Maribor), 1969; (with others) Spisi, pisma, govori, 1920-1967, by Ho Chi Minh, Cankarjeva Zalozba (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1969; and Mandarini, by Simone de Beauvoir, Cankarjeva Zalozba (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 1971.