• Publisher: ŠKUC
• Author: Kristina Hočevar

The book’s critique and overcoming of conventional social and literary patterns begins at the formal level. As stated by Vanesa Matajc in her afterword to the book: “Collo- cations of words and arrangements of verses in the bookspace open ambivalences and contradictions: they’re de-familiarizing.” And the book’s de-familiarization and ques- tioning of the conventional, its destabilisation of borders and prejudices, its resistance against mental and social structures, is precisely what allows the book to break free from all this.

The poetry of Kristina Hočevar is a precise articulation of all the complexities of the relationship between the public and the private. The author is unrelenting both in her social critique and in confrontations with her personal intimacy. Hočevar’s poetry is anything but comforting. The pressure can be felt even at the level of literary lan- guage, with enjambments and silences, a choppy rhythm, a minimal expression with precise metaphors and symbols. This is a poetry that overcomes clichés, even at the level of language, and opens issues, particularly those that we usually prefer to avoid in order to satisfy social conventions. The poetics of Hočevar is extremely convincing as it creates a personal language and a unique system of metaphors and forces the reader to rethink and overcome his stereotypical ideas, including those about poetry itself.

About the author

Kristina Hočevar

Kristina Hočevar (1977) is the author of sev- en poetry collections. She received the Golden Bird Award for Repki (Tiny Tails), and the Jenko Award for her collection Na zobeh aluminij, na ustnicah kreda (Aluminium on the Teeth, Chalk in the Lips). The latter was fully translated into Ger- man (Auf den Zähnen Aluminum, auf den Lippen Kreide, DSP, 2017), and was also published as an audio book. Her poems have been included in various anthologies, translated into 15 languages, and also presented through the Versopolis poet-

ry platform. She participates in various Slovenian and international art festivals. Simultaneously with the publication of her latest book, trilingual poetry collec- tion Rujenje/Half of a C / C 的一半, Hočevar authored an exhibition at the Škuc Gallery. Her poetry has been described as “one of those literary voices that are too special, too individual to fit into any poetry school or movement.” (T. Kozin, ARS).

Kristina Hočevar has a BA in Slovenian Language and Literature and in Gener- al Linguistics. She teaches Slovene, proofreads and occasionally translates literature from English.