EVALD FLISAR, bio/biblio 

 
Evald Flisar, born in Slovenia, read comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana. After spending a year in Vienna and a year in London, he travelled to the United States, South Africa and Australia, where he settled for three years, working as underground train driver in Sydney. Although in 1975 he settled in London, where he studied English literature, he continued globe-trotting and has so far travelled in over eighty countries, mostly in the Third World. He has visited India, his favourite country, six times for periods totalling over two years. Between travels he worked for various London publishing houses and was executive editor of the Marshall Cavendish Encyclopaedia of Science and Invention. He also wrote articles, short stories and radio plays for the BBC. In 1988 he began to pay more visits to Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he now spends most of his time. 

Evald Flisar writes novels, short stories, travel books and stage plays. Two of his books, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (*arovnikov vajenec) and Travels in Shadowlands (Popotnik v kraljestvu senc), have won him unanimous critical acclaim as well as mass readership. In 1993 he was awarded the Prešeren Fund Prize (the highest Slovenian literary award) for Travels in Shadowland, and also the Grum Award for the best play of the year, What about Leonardo? (Kaj pa Leonardo?), subsequently staged at Sadlers Wells Theatre in London's West End, City Theatre in Reykjavik, Iceland, Pozorište Zorana Radmilovi*a, Zaje*ar, Srbija, and other places. His novel A Journey too Far Potovanje predale*), shortlisted for the Novel of the Year Award (Kresnik 2000), has been turned into a seven-part TV series. His other novels are A Swarm of Dust (Mrgolenje prahu), Dying in the Mirror (Umiranje v ogledalu), Crazy Life (Noro *ivljenje), My Father's Dreams (Velika *ival samote) and Three Loves, one Death (Ljubezni tri in ena smrt.)  

Evald Flisar was the first in Slovenia to write cyclical, meta-fictional short stories which in a new way exposed the ambiguities and tautologies of the art of fiction (Tales of the Mute Sheherezade -Zgodbe neme Šeherezade, included in his collection of short stories Hunt the Hunter - Lov na lovca). He is also the author of what literary historians regard as the best two travel books in the Slovene language, A Thousand and One Journey (Tiso* in ena pot) (on Asia) and South of North (Ju*no od severa) (on Africa). His most successful novel to date, The Sorcerer's Apprentice - *arovnikov vajenec (reprinted six times and by far the most successful Slovenian novel since World War II, with over 45.000 copies sold) has just been published by Basam Books, translated into Finnish by Kari Klemela, and by VBZ Publishers in Zagreb, Croatia. His latest collection of short stories, Zgodbe s poti (in Slovenia already in its third edition) has appeared in the United States under the title Tales of Wandering (Texture Press/University of Oklahoma Press). Texture Press has just published his latest novel, My Father's Dreams (original Slovene title Velika *ival samote). His short stories, plays and radio plays have been translated into more than twenty languages. 

Flisar is also one of the leading Slovenian playwrights. He has written ten plays, all of which have been professionally staged at home and some in many countries abroad. His most successful play so far, Tomorrow, has received 17 foreign productions and has been described as "a brilliant absurdist comedy showing the birth of the postmodern society", and most recently by the Austrian critics as a "theatrical wonder" and "an absurdist masterpiece". His other plays are Kostanjeva krona (The Chestnut Crown), Stric iz Amerike (Uncle from America), The Poet's Heart (Iztrohnjeno srce), Son*ne pege (Sunspost), Tristan in Izolda: igra o ljubezni in smrti (Tristan and Iseult: a play about love and death), Poslednja nedol*nost (Final Innocence), Enajsti planet (The Eleventh Planet), Hamlet and Eye (Hamlet in Jaz), Nora Nora (Nora Nora). 

Evald Flisar has held public readings of his work all over the world: in London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Budapest, Lisbon and other places. From 1995 to 2002 he was President of the Slovene Writers' Association. Since 1999 he is editor-in-chief of the country's oldest literary magazine SODOBNOST, published since 1933.