Lojze Kovacic (1928-2004) was born in Basel to a German mother and Slovenian father. In 1938 the family was exiled to Slovenia, where Kovacic lived until his death. Considered to be one of Slovenia's most significant authors of the 20th century, his works often relate to his own life and are constantly concerned with existential topics like life and death, displacement and exile, dream and reality. He has been compared to great Central European writers such as Danilo Kis, Sandor Marai, Imre Kertész and Ismail Kadaré. His work, which has now been rediscovered in several countries, consists of ten novels, novellas, essays and children's books.

Translator bio:

Michael Biggins has translated over fifteen book-length literary works from Slovenian, including the novels of Drago Jancar, collections of poetry by Toma? Šalamun, the Holocaust memoir Necropolis by Triestine Slovenian author Boris Pahor, and Slovenia's all-time best-selling novel Alamut by Vladimir Bartol. In 2015 he was awarded the Janko Lavrin Diploma of the Society of Slovene Literary Translators for distinguished contributions to Slovene literature abroad. He lives in Seattle, where he curates the Slavic and East European library collections at the University of Washington and teaches in the University's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.