Jani Virk

Jani Virk (born 4 March 1962) is a Slovene writer, poet, translator and editor. He writes poetry, short stories, essays, novels and scripts and translates from German into Slovene.

Virk was born in Ljubljana in 1962. He studied at the German and Comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana. During his studies, he worked in Chicago, London and Germany as a manual worker. In his youth, he trained for the Yugoslavian National Ski Team and he briefly worked as a ski coach. Later, he worked as an editor at the Literatura literary journal, the newspaper Slovenec and at the national broadcasting house. From 2010, he is the editor of the Drama department at RTV Slovenia.

In 1999 he won the Prešeren Foundation Award for his collection of short stories Pogled na Tycho Brache (A View of Tycho Brahe). In 2014, he completed a Doctorate Degree in German studies, where he researched the theme of the Middles Ages in film and literature.

Published works

Short stories Preskok (The Jump Over), 1987 Vrata in druge zgodbe (The Door and Other Stories), 1991 Moški nad prepadom (Man Above the Abyss), 1994 Izza potresa:novele (From Behind the Earthquake), 1995 (with Lela B. Njatin and Jože Hudeček) Pogled na Tycho Brache (A View of Tycho Brahe), 1998 Med drevesi (Among the Trees), 2016 Metulj v jantarju (Butterfly in the amber), 2023

Poetry Tečeva čez polje (We Run Across the Field), 1990

Essay Collection Na robu resničnosti (On the Edge of Reality), 1992

Novels Rahela (Rachel), 1989 1895, potres:kronika nenadejane ljubezni (1895, Earthquake: A Chronicle of an Unexpected Love), 1995 Zadnja Sergijeva skušnjava (Sergij's Final Temptation), 1996 Smeh za leseno pregrado (Laughter From Beyond the Wooden Barrier), 2000 Aritmija (Arrhythmia), 2004 Ljubezen v zraku (Love in the Air), 2009 Kar je odnesla reka, kar je odnesel dim (What the River Swept Away, What Was Carried Away by Smoke), 2012 Brez imena (No Name), 2018 Jaka in Vane, zgodba iz osemdesetih (Jaka and Vane, A Story From the Eighties), 2021 Vrnitev domov (Coming back home) 2023 For Young Readers Regata (Regata), 1995 (in Bosnian, translated by Josip Osti) Poletje na snegu (Summer on the Snow), 2003 Awards

Lake Balaton TV festival, Best script, Vaški učitelj, 1995 Prix Europa, Best script nomination for Vaški učitelj, 1995 The Prešeren Foundation Award, 1999 Pazin International Publishers' Award, 2000 Njegoš Award (Montenegrin International Award) nomination, Med drevesi, 2017 Župančič Award, Med drevesi, 2018