Svetlana Velmar Janković

Svetlana Velmar-Janković (Cyrillic: Светлана Велмар-Јанковић, [sʋɛ̌tlana ʋɛ̂lmaːr jaːnkɔʋitɕ]; 29 June 1933 – 9 April 2014) was a Serbian novelist, essayist and chronicler of Belgrade. She was born and educated in Belgrade, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia where she continued to live with her mother and sister after her father Vladimir Velmar-Janković went to exile in Spain at the end of the Second World War.

In her second year at university, she became a journalist. In 1959 she became an editor of contemporary Yugoslav prose and essay compositions at the Prosveta Publishing House. She worked here for many years, becoming, in 1971, a member of the editorial board.

In the meantime she established the Baština Library and, in 1989, became an independent writer.

Her publications include the novels: Ožiljak (1956, second revised edition 1999), Lagum (1990), Bezdno (1995) and Nigdina (2000); an autobiographical novel, Prozraci (2003); two collections of essays Savremenici (1968) and Ukletnici (1993); three collections of short stories Dorćol (1981), Vračar (1994) and Glasovi (1997); the play Knez Mihailo (1994) and book of plays Žezlo (2001); the children’s book Knjiga za Marka (1998); and the prayer book Svetilnik (1998).

She has received numerous awards and prizes for her work, including the Isidora Sekulić, Ivo Andrić, Meša Selimović, Đorđe Jovanović, Borisav Stanković and Pera Todorović prizes. She won the National Library of Serbia Award for the most read book of 1992 and the NIN Prize for novel of the year for Bezdno (1995). For Knjiga za Marka (1998) she won the Neven Prize and Prize of Politikin zabavnik. She was awarded the 6 April Prize for her life’s work about Belgrade. Other awards include the Mišićev dukat, Ramonda Serbica award, and the Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša Prize.

Her work is currently published by the Stubovi Kulture Publishing House, Belgrade. Her work has been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Korean and Hungarian.