Vinko Möderndorfer, born in 1958 in Celje, graduated in theatre direction from the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana with the performance "The Proposal" by A.P. Chekov in 1982.

He works as a theater director, playwright and is author of numerous award-winning dramas and radio plays. His comedies in particular are said to be among the best in Slovenia. Vinko Möderndorfer has also published several collections of poems. Since 1993, when his first work of fiction The Circle of Little Death (Krog male Smrti) was published and received the award of the town of Ljubljana, he has also made a name for himself as a prolific prose writer.

Until today he already directed more than 70 theatre and opera performances and furthermore directed 11 TV plays and documentaries that he also wrote the scripts for. Up til now he published more than 50 books.
Among the awards he won are the Borštnik Award for best director (1986) for the performance Potujoče gledališče Šopalovič (The Šopalovič Travelling Theatre), the Župančič Award of the city of Ljubljana (1994) for the collection of novellas Krog male smrti (Circle of Small Death), the first prize at the anonymous competition of Radio Slovenia and WDR (1994) for his radio play for adults Pokrajina (The Landscape) and the Rožanc Award (2002) for best collections of essays Gledališče v ogledalu (A Mirror to Theatre).

Thanks to the HALMA grant you can read a sample translation of Vinko Möderndorfer's writing in Czech.


The HALMA grant 2011 for Vinko Möderndorfer was made possible by the Slovene Book Agency.