Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief of Otrok in knjiga: dr. Andreja Erdlen
T: +386 2 23 52 100 (main line), +386 2 23 52 129
Editorial Secretary: Ana Dolinšek

Language Editor: Tadej Vrbnjak
Translator: Marjeta Gostinčar Cerar

Andreja Erdlen, PhD, librarian, graduated literary comparativist, publicist, storyteller, PhD in Literature, Head of the Centre for Promoting Reading Literacy at the Maribor Library

At the Maribor Public Library, her work focused on bibliopedagogical activities and engagement with young readers, especially adolescents. This included organising literary events with authors of children’s and young adult literature and evaluating literary works for young audiences. Her articles and reviews on literature and theatre have been published in Otrok in knjiga, the Journal of Elementary Education, Sodobnost, Večer, and Dialogi, where she also briefly served as section editor for theatre. She has participated in several expert committees, including those responsible for book and publishing policy in the Municipality of Maribor, the Glazer Awards, and the Golden Pear award.

Tina Bilban, PhD, researcher, literary critic, editor, translator, author

She works at the intersection of philosophy, science, and literature, with a particular focus on children’s and young adult literature. She has served as President of the IBBY Slovenia since 2020, a member of the IBBY Executive Committee since 2022, and Vice President of IBBY since 2024. In 2020 and 2022, she was a member of the jury for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition in the field of children’s literature. In 2024, she served on the jury for the Bologna Ragazzi Award (BRAW), presented by the Bologna Children's Book Fair. She is also a member of the editorial board of Bookbird (2024–), one of the leading international journals dedicated to children’s literature. Additionally, she is part of the expert committee for the Manual for Reading Quality Youth Books, published by the Pionirska Centre for Youth Literature and Librarianship, part of the Ljubljana City Library. Her professional work includes research, literary criticism, and editorial work, and she is the author of several educational and literary works for both young and adult readers.

Urška P. Černe, B.A. in Law, graduate in German and comparative literature, translator

She has translated approximately 24,000 lines of poetry into Slovene and German, seven stage plays for theatre and puppet productions, and around 460 author’s sheets of prose and scholarly texts in the humanities. More recently, her translation work has increasingly focused on children’s and young adult literature. She has received numerous distinguished national and international awards in the field of literary translation, including the Sovre Award, Slovenia’s highest recognition for translation. Since 2007, she has been teaching courses in Literary Translation and Translation of Humanities Texts at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor. Her research has been published in international translation studies journals. She also serves as the director of the Pranger Festival, which brings together poets, critics, and translators in dialogue.

Darja Lavrenčič Vrabec M.Phil., graduate in Slovene Studies and Librarianship, Head of the Pioneer Centre for Youth Literature and Librarianship

She graduated in Slovene Studies and Library Science from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, and earned her master's degree in children’s literature in 2000. She is employed at the Ljubljana City Library as the head of Pionirska – Competence Centre for Youth Literature and Librarianship, For many years, she has actively contributed as an editor to the Manual for Reading Quality Youth Books and is one of the initiators of the national project Golden Pear. She regularly participates in and coordinates professional seminars and symposia, where she also delivers presentations. Her writings focus on children’s literature. She is a member of the expert project group Growing up with a Book for Primary and Secondary Schools at The Slovenian Book Agency JAK RS, and was a member of the working group responsible for reviewing and updating the National Strategy for Literacy Development 2019–2030 at the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia. She collaborates professionally on various interdepartmental projects related to books and reading. She works closely with multiple institutions involved in reading and reading promotion both domestically and internationally. In 2017, she was awarded the Čop Diploma for her professional work.

Jt. Prof. Barbara Pregelj, PhD, translator and interpreter, reading motivation advocate, editor, and certified court interpreter

She holds degrees in Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature. Following the completion of her studies, she continued her academic training at the University of Salamanca in Spain within the PEI program. She obtained a Master’s degree focusing on the literature of the Spanish Golden Age and earned her doctorate with a dissertation on contemporary Slovenian literature. She currently serves as a Joint Professor of Literature at the University of Nova Gorica. Her research interests include the reception of Spanish literature in the Slovenian literary context, translation studies, children’s and young adult literature, literary interpretation, and the study of literature as a system.She is an active participant in academic conferences, symposia, round tables, and lectures, both in Slovenia and internationally. She has also organized numerous visits of foreign authors to Slovenia, as well as visits of Slovenian authors to Spanish-speaking countries, and has coordinated literary symposia. As a literary translator, she has lent her voice — in both Slovenian and Spanish — to a number of prominent authors writing in Spanish, Slovenian, Basque, Catalan, and Galician. She has conceptualized and led various national and international projects in the fields of reading promotion, literary translation, reception studies, and literary systems.

Tatjana Pregl Kobe, graduated art historian, art critic, writer, poet, essayist

Among her most significant scholarly contributions is the book Slovenska knjižna ilustracija (1979/80). She further examined the development of illustration in her monograph Upodobljene besede (1998). She continues to closely follow this visual art field and regularly participates in both national and international juries related to illustration, as well as in exhibition tours and lectures. In recent years, she has also contributed a series of professional articles titled Slovenski knjižni ilustratorji published in the journal Otrok in knjiga. She is currently preparing a comprehensive book project titled Slovenian Book Illustration; the first volume was published in 2023, and the second is forthcoming. As an art critic, she has curated over 500 exhibitions and has served as a curator for more than ten major projects, each accompanied by extensive catalogues. In addition to her critical and scholarly work, she also writes poetry and literature for children and young adults. She has received numerous awards and distinctions for her work. She is a member of the Slovene Association of Fine Arts Critics, the Slovene Writers’ Association, and the Slovene PEN Centre. She is also one of the founding members of MIRA, the women’s section of the Slovene PEN Centre.

Jerneja Stoviček, M.Phil., graduate in Comparative Literature and a school librarian

Her primary area of work is school librarianship. Within both internal and external projects, she actively contributes to the promotion of reading and reading literacy among school-age youth. She occasionally publishes in journals such as Šolska knjižnica and Bukla, as well as on platforms including the Knjižničarske novice website of the National and University Library and IZUM’s Blog Cobiss. She served two terms as the head of the Golden Pear Award Committee.

Tadej Vrbnjak, librarian and professor of Slovene

He graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor, in 2016 with a thesis titled Postmodernist Techniques in Selected Works of Paul Auster. For several years, he worked as a teacher of Slovene for foreigners and adult learners. He is currently employed at the Maribor Public Library, where he works in a combined unit and actively promotes awareness of the importance of literature—children’s, young adult, and adult fiction alike. He is involved in various working groups within the Maribor Public Library and, alongside his engagement with the art of the written word, demonstrates a keen sensitivity to language and the linguistic particularities of individuals. Since issue no. 116, he has been the language editor of the journal Otrok in knjiga, where he also contributes to verifying the formal accuracy of submissions.

Assoc. Prof. Barbara Zorman, PhD

She is the author of the literary study Sence besede, which explores the influence of literature on the development of Slovenian film. Her subsequent research, focusing on film adaptations, extended to film education, youth literature, and intercultural aspects of education. Her articles have been published in journals such as Primerjalna književnost, Jezik in slovstvo, Sodobna pedagogika and Otrok in knjiga. She has presented at numerous symposia, including those organized by the Centre for the Study of Youth Literature in Cambridge, the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and elsewhere. She teaches at the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Humanities, University of Primorska

From abroad

Gloria Bazzocchi, Associate Professor, Department of Interpreting and Translation, University of Bologna

Juan Kruz Igerabide, Spanish author, teacher, lecturer, poet, and translator.

Dubravka Zima, Full Professor, Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb