Nataša Velikonja

 

Nataša Velikonja (born in 1967) is a sociologist, poet, essayist, translator, lesbian activist. In 1992, she graduated with the best grade in theoretical sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana; for her diploma work she received the highest Faculty award – Prešernova award. She is active on several social and cultural fronts in Slovenia: from 1993 she is an activist in gay and lesbian movement in Slovenia; she was an editorial board member of the magazine Časopis za kritiko znanosti; a political commentator for Radio Študent; the editor of the Lesbo magazine and founder of the Lesbian Library and Archive in Ljubljana etc.

She has published six books of poetry: her first poetry collection Abonma (Subscription; 1994) is considered to be the first openly lesbian poetry collection in Slovenia, followed by Žeja (Thirst; 1999), Plevel (Weeds; 2004), Poljub ogledala (The Kiss of the Mirror; 2007), Ostani (Stay; 2014) and Preveč vljudna (Too Polite, 2017). She is also the author of four books of essays and scientific papers: three essay collections Fragmenti svobode (Fragments of Freedom; 2008) and Lezbični bar (Lesbian bar; 2011) and Devetdeseta (Nineties, 2017), and the monograph Lezbična sekcija LL: kronologija 1987-2012 s predzgodovino (LL25: Lesbian Section LL: chronology 1987-2012; with a co-author Tatjana Greif; 2012) that discusses the history of lesbianism and lesbian activism in Slovenia. In the last twenty years she has published more than 500 essays, columns, sociological writings and other texts both at home and abroad. Her poems and essays were translated in English, French, German, Spanish, Portugal, Polish, Serbian and Croatian language.

She is also a translator: she has translated several works of lesbian and gay theory, gender studies and radical social criticism, as well as theories of architecture and design, including authors as Monique Wittig, Colette, Lillian Faderman, Shari Benstock, Richard Goldstein, Laura Cottingham, Teresa de Lauretis, Larry Kramer, Andrea Weiss, Buckminster Fuller, Norman Potter, etc.

She lives in Ljubljana. Since 1995 she has been registered with the Slovenian Ministry of Culture as a poet, art critic and translator. In 2016 she received the highest award of City of Ljubljana for the artistic creativity, the Župančičeva award.