»Unter die Haut«: Neue Literatur aus Slowenien. Mit Mojca Kumerdej, Suzana Tratnik & Ana Svetel

March 7, 2026 / 7.30 pm / Literature Café

LEIPZIG READS

Slovenia is a small country where people have often had to remain silent in the past and which prefers concise literary forms such as poems or short stories. Thorsten Ahrend talks to two award-winning short prose writers: Mojca Kumerdej and Ana Svetel. They deal with very different topics, but they share deep psychological insight and an unsparing style of writing that literally gets under the reader's skin. The authors will also talk about their own pain when writing.

Mojca Kumerdej has called her new collection of stories "Beneath the Surface" - because dark, frightening things sometimes lurk there - a woman maintains the appearance of a loving mother on the outside, but inside she longs for her more self-determined life before giving birth and does not intervene when disaster strikes. Another can only be happy herself when her friend is unhappy. Mojca Kumerdej portrays the inner world of her characters and the motives behind their behavior with a fine psychological sense. (Translated from the Slovenian by Erwin Köstler, Liza Linde, Karin Almasy and Fabjan Hafner, Wallstein, 30.08.2023) - Mojca Kumerdej, born in 1964, is a Slovenian author, philosopher and journalist. After studying philosophy and cultural sociology at the University of Ljubljana, she made her debut with her parodic novel "Krst nad Triglavom". This was followed by two volumes of short stories, which have been translated into numerous languages. She received the prestigious Prešeren Fund Award for her second novel "Kronosova žetev" (Chronos reaps).

Ana Svetel, born in 1990, is a lecturer in cultural and social anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana. She has published two collections of poetry (Lepo in prav, 2016 and Marmor, 2022) and two volumes of short prose (Dobra družba, 2019 and Steklene stene, 2024). For the latter, she received the Kritiško sito prize in 2025, which is awarded by literary critics for the best book of the year. She received the SEP prize for young authors at the international Vilenica Festival. Her texts have been published in all major Slovenian literary journals and translated into various languages.

Admission: 10,- / 7,- EUR ǀ Tickets at the Box Office or in advance online: https: //rausgegangen.de/events/unter-die-haut-neue-literatur-aus-slowenien-mit-mojca-kumerd-0/

Event organized by the Slovenian Book Agency JAK and Literaturhaus Leipzig e.V.