Diana Pungeršič (1984) is a literary critic, moderator and literary translator from Slovak and Czech and into Slovak. She studied Slovenian and Slovak languages and literature, and sociology of culture in Ljubljana. She attended the SAS Summer School in Bratislava three times and studied there for a semester. In 2007 and 2008, she was awarded the first prize in the translation competition of the Department of Slavistics at the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts. In 2010 and 2013, she was nominated for the Lirikonov zlát Award for her translations of modern Slovak poetry. The recipient of the Radojka Vrančič Award in 2016 for the translation of the novel Samko Tále: Knjiga o britofu by Daniela Kapitáňova, she was also awarded the Golden Pear Label for her translations of children’s literature by Ivona Březinova and Petra Dvořákova in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and the Golden Pear Award in 2019 for the translation of the novel Pes pa v smeh by Juraj Šebesta. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic honoured her with a special award for exceptional merits in establishing friendly relations between Slovenia and Slovakia in 2018 on the 25th anniversary of Slovak independence. The same year she received the Stritar Award for her work as a critic. She published ten literary translations for youth and adults (Pavol Rankov, Daniela Kapitáňová, Ivona Březinová, Petra Dvořáková, Marek Vadas, Juraj Šebesta, Víťo Staviarsky, Martin Pitro, Iva Procházková, Dušan Mitana) and wrote forewords to most of them. She published translations of Slovak and Czech authors in main literary magazines (Sodobnost, Literatura, Mentor, Pogledi), on Radio Slovenia 3 and websites (www.ludliteratura.si, airbeletrina). She is publishing literary interviews, reviews and thoughts, and hosting literary events and the Kira knjiga book club.
