photo: Kristijan Robič
Kristina Kočan (1981) is a poet and translator. In 2016 she received a Ph.D. in contemporary American poetry at the University of Maribor, Slovenia. Her publications include four books of poetry: selišča (Maribor: Litera, 2021), šivje (Maribor: Litera, 2018), Kolesa in Murve (Ptuj: Zavod Itadakimasu, 2014), and Šara (Maribor: Litera, 2008) that was nominated for the best Debut Book Award. She published a collection of short stories Divjad (Maribor: Litera, 2019), as well as a multimedia book s|prehod (Maribor: Litera, 2018) containing her poems and their recordings together with photography work of Bojan Atanaskovič. Her work has been translated into more than 10 foreign languages and anthologized in several international collections, including Europe in Poems: The Versopolis Anthology and Other Words/Druge besede.
In her translation work she focuses mainly on American authors; some of her books of translation include a selection of poetry by Audre Lorde, entitled Postaje (Ljubljana: ŠKUC, 2009). She co-translated the anthology of African American poetry, entitled Govoreči boben (Murska Sobota: Separatio, 2006). In 2021, her anthology of contemporary short prose by Native American writers appeared, entitled Po toku navzgor (Maribor: Litera), which she translated and edited.
In 2015 she began intensely working with musicians, writing lyrics for a Slovenian band Brest, so far they have released 2 albums. In addition, she dedicates herself to her performance projects, combining her poetry together with famous Slovenian musicians.
