The 2025 SEP Award winner is Ana Svetel

The SEP 2025 jury, consisting of Leonora Flis, Aljaž Koprivnikar, Jaruška Majovski, Gregor Podlogar, and Suzana Tratnik, has selected Ana Svetel (Slovenia) as the awardee. We warmly congratulate the winner!

About the author:

Ana Svetel was born in 1990 in Maribor, where she completed her studies at the II. Gymnasium and the Conservatory of Music in 2009. The same year, she moved to Ljubljana to study ethnology and cultural anthropology at the Faculty of Arts. She earned her BA in 2012, her MA in 2016, and her PhD in 2023. She is employed at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology as a lecturer and researcher.

Her deep interest in people and the cultural meanings that emerge at the intersection of language and space has strongly influenced her writing from the start. She closely intertwines anthropological knowledge with literary creativity. She regularly publishes prose, poetry, essays, and columns in literary journals and other media. She has participated in numerous domestic and international festivals (Ljubljana, Ptuj, Helsingør, Larisa, Caernarfon, Zagreb, Matosinhos, etc.) and has taken part in residency programs (Ulysses Shelter, Reading Balkans, Croatian PEN). Her works are included in Slovenian studies curricula at the universities of Graz and Klagenfurt and have been adapted into poetry, radio, and theater productions. She was also among the authors featured in the project Slovenia – Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Her first book, the poetry collection Lepo in prav, was nominated for the Best Debut Award. Her second collection, Marmor, was selected for the international Lirikonfest festival (Velenje) and nominated for the Veronika Award. The short prose book Dobra družba was nominated for the Novo Mesto Award and received a warm reception from critics and readers. Her latest book, Steklene stene, received the Kritiško sito Award, presented by the Slovenian Literary Critics’ Association.