Festivals and events

URŠKA (national literary festival of youth authors)

The Slovene literary festival of young authors has been targeting rising writers aged between 15 and 30 since 2000. The selection for the festival takes place in two parts. Firstly, the applicants perform at six regional reviews across the entire country, where expert advisors read their works under code and choose the best. The finalists are being chosen among the writers that are suggested by regional selectors. Mentor magazine publishes the works of five chosen writers and a preface of the country selector. The winner of the contest is being announced at the festival; during the following year, the winner publishes his or her debut with the assistance of a mentor and participates in an international literature festival.

V ZAVETJU BESEDE (national festival of adult writers)

All senior writers are invited to participate in this literature contest. Regional selectors choose the best works of six regional meetings and present them in coded form, with personal comments. All nominated writers are then invited to join the national writing workshop - three of them are presented as best of that contest year. The selected works of all six regional meetings are published in the special almanac called V zavetju besede.

SOSED TVOJEGA BREGA (national festival of writers from other nations that live in Slovenia)

This national festival of “minority” writers living in Slovenia but speaking Slovenian as their second language has a 42-year tradition. It is unique on our territory as it stands for the creative work of different (language) cultures that coexist with us. We are biennially publishing the multilingual magazine Paralele, containing selected literary works by participating writers and other contents.

ROŠEVI DNEVI (national literary festival of young, 13-15 years old writers)

This is a traditional literary meeting of the best young 8th and 9th grade poets and writers from elementary schools in Slovenia and neighbouring countries. Out of all the delivered contributions, a jury first chooses twenty artists followed by picking the top five contributions that are awarded with literature prizes and a feature of their work in the Mentor almanac and magazine.

COMPETITION FOR BEST SCHOOL LITERARY PUBLICATIONS

The contest is intended for the editorships of elementary, secondary and grammar school literary bulletins and other literary publications (almanacs, individual writers’ independent books) in hard copy and electronic format.

MENTORJEV FEFERON, competition for the best protest poem and social satire

The best poem, chosen by an expert jury, is set to music and released in October during the festival Urška in Slovenj Gradec. All nominated poems are published in the magazine Mentor along with an argumentation.