Svetlana Makarovi? draws extensively on folklore, especially on balladic poetry. She developed this resource in a distinctly individual fashion by faithfully maintaining the rhythm and lexis of the traditional ballad; her heartbreaking ballads speak of the dehumanized nature of the modern world.Through her poetry, Svetlana Makarovi? brings to life many beings from Slovenian mythology that had been more or less consigned to the attic of collective oblivion: desetnica (the tenth daughter), kresnik (the summer solstice bonfire spirit), the spring-announcing deity of Zeleni Jurij ('Green George), Pehtra (the witch or sorceress), sojenice (the Fates), ¨kopnik (the night spirit), and so on.The pan-European dimension of her work is valid not only at the formal level but also with respect to the artistic worth of her poetry: as the structures of Makarovi?s ballads connect Slovenian heritage with the traditions of other European nations, so, too, does her artistic vision grow from a Slovenian vision of the world, transcending it into a universal account of human destiny. Svetlana Makarovi? is a great European, as well as a Slovenian, poet (www.litteraeslovenicae.si).

Svetlana Makarovi? was born in 1939 in Maribor and started her career as a professional stage actress. Today she is a professional writer, poet, and one of the best-known Slovenian authoresses. Her poetry is traditional rather than avant-garde. The curiosity of her poetry lies in paraphrasing the motives and the tone of Slovenian folk poems, as well as in creating an obscure, balladic atmosphere. Her poems range from free to fixed forms. She has published several books of poetry: Somrak (Twilight, 1967), Kresna no? (The Midsummer Night, 1968), Vol?je jagode (The Deadly Nightshades, 1972), Sr?evec (The Heart Potion, 1973), Pelin ¸ena (The Wormwood Woman, 1974), Sosed gora (Neighbour Mountain, 1980) and other. Makarovi? is a relevant author for the younger generations: Pekarna Mi¨ma¨ (The Mi¨ma¨ bakery), Saprami¨ka (Sapramouse) ect. She has published more than thirty books and fifteen plays for children. She has received a number of awards for her work, among them the Pre¨eren Fund Prize for the poetry collection Vojskin ?as (Time of War, 1976), the Jenko Prize for the poetry collection Tisti ?as (That Time, 1994); she made the 1994 IBBY Honour List, received a Victor Award for lifetime achievemetn (2002), The Golden Order for Merits of the Republic of Slovenia, the Levstik award for lifetime achievement (2011) and the Zlatnik poetry award (2012). In 2000 she refused the largest national award Pre¨eren Prize. Her works have been translated into a number of foreign languages. The poet and comparative literature professor Boris A. Novak wrote of her: Svetlana Makarovi? is, by common consensus, the 'first lady of modern Slovenian poetry. She is a complex, artistic personality, the author of an exquisite and expressively powerful poetry opus. If she wrote in a language with a 'greater diffusion, she would undoubtedly rank among the leading names in European poetry of recent decades.