Andrej Predin

Andrej Predin attended primary and secondary school in Maribor before moving to Ljubljana, where he studied biology. During his studies, he spent a year in China, travelled from Tibet to Hong Kong and explored nature.

His first novel, On a green bough (Na zeleno vejo), was written after his return to Slovenia. After being shortlisted for the Cankar Award, the book raised a lot of dust for its allegedly inappropriate content. This was followed by the novel Teahers (Učiteljice), in which he describes his years as a primary school biology teacher. His third novel, Future Ltd. (Prihodnost d.o.o), completed his Maribor trilogy.

He is currently working on the stories about the little girl Mica (Mary), in collaboration with the renowned illustrator Marijan Manček, which have been translated into English and Turkish. So far, four volumes have been published: Mary at grandma´s: The magic hat (Mica pri babici: Čarobni cilinder), 2013; Mary at grandma´s: Pirates from Merikaka land (Mica pri babici: Pirati iz

dežele Merikaka), 2014, Mary at grandma´s: Out-of-control Princesses (Mica pri babici: Podivjane princeske), 2015; in Mary at grandma´s: Kidnpped Santa Claus (Mica pri babici: Ugrabljeni Božiček), 2018. His picture book on ecology, Yucky Pits (Gnusna kalnica), 2013, earned him a nomination for the Desetnica Award, presented by the youth section of the Slovene Writers' Association. The book has been translated into English and Turkish. In Turkey, it was adapted into a play for children. At the end of 2015, he published a picture book, Ugly onion (Čebula Grdula).

He wrote the script for the music video of the song Ballad (Balada) by Katja Koren. In 2018, an excerpt from his novel On a green bough was included in the Austrian anthology Gegen den Ball. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Maribor National Theatre, he was one of three Maribor authors whose works were staged in the 2019/2020 season. For this purpose, he wrote a dramatisation of the children's play Mary at grandma´s, which premiered on 9 November 2019. He is a member of the Slovene Writers' Association and PEN. In September 2020, he published the picture book Little aliens (Vesoljčki) with Mladinska knjiga, which earned a nomination for a Desetnica Award. The Maribor Puppet Theatre staged the puppet show Bimberli, for which he wrote the dramatisation. He also wrote the script for a cartoon which is currently in production.

With his inexhaustible, characteristic sense of humour and a keen sense of discovering the beauty in the everyday or even the unusual, the author presents young readers with new worlds from a completely different perspective.

Peter Škerl

Peter Škerl graduated in illustration and visual communication design from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. He has already excelled in fine arts as a primary school student. In 1991, when he was still in high school, he made a short cartoon film called Three caterpillars (Tri gosenice). Since 2002 he has been working as a freelance artist. He illustrates picture books and books for children and young people, textbooks and manuals (Mladinska knjiga, DZS) and publishes in children's magazines (Ciciban, Cicido, Mavrica, Ognjišče). He has illustrated more than 100 different editions of literary works. He has been particularly successful with his illustrations for the book The swamp people (Močvirniki) by Barbara Simoniti. He has also designed the artwork for several puppet and theatre performances. Škerl lives and works in Dolenjske Toplice.