On the Outside: new books from Slovenia and Croatia
Schedule
Wed May 27 2026 at 06:00 pm to 08:30 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Masaryk room | London, EN
About this Event
This event brings together the latest work from Slovenian author, Miha Mazzini and the late Croatian author, Daša Drndić, with two new books in English that examine the lives of those on the periphery of society, ignored by authorities and erased from public consciousness. Join author Miha Mazzini and translator (and former Senior Lecturer at SSEES) Celia Hawkesworth in conversation with publisher Susan Curtis.
This event is organised by the UCL SSEES Southeast European studies seminar series, supported by Istros Books.
About Erased by Miha Mazzini (published by Fly on the Wall press)
When a "software error" erases Zala from the system, she discovers that officially, she and her newborn don't exist. As Zala fights desperately to prove her existence, and save her child from adoption, she uncovers the Kafkaesque reality of Slovenia's system - one that erased 25,671 citizens on February 26, 1992. A chilling thriller about bureaucracy as violence, and one mother's battle against the state.
About Dying In Toronto by Dasa Drndic (translated by Celia Hawkesworth and published by Istros Books)
All of Drndic’s award-winning work fluctuates between fact and fiction, and ‘Dying in Toronto’ gives an account of the author’s first year in Canada as a refugee, in 1995. While the book is written in form of essays, it is clearly shaped to tell of that year as a story, and the result is unique in both form and content, combining new techniques of creative personal confession and acute social perception, which offer a rare depth of insight and breadth of perspective on the real, difficult life of an immigrant.
Speakers
Miha Mazzini is the author of more than 30 books, published in 15 languages, and has stories featured in prestigious anthologies including Pushcart Prize 2012 and Best European Fiction 2018. He is also a screenwriter and director of multiple prize-winning films.
Celia Hawkesworth taught at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies from 1971 to 2002. She began translating fiction in the 1960s and to date has published some 40 titles. Recently she has been translating works by Daša Drndić: Belladonna was shortlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize 2018 and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2018, and won the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2018. EEG won the Best Translated Book Award in 2020 and the AATSEEL Best Literary Translation Prize in 2021. Her translation of Ivo Andrić’s Omer Pasha Latas won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation prize in 2019.
The participation of author Miha Mazzini is supported by the Cultural Fund, which promotes Slovenian culture internationally and is administered by the Slovenian Embassy in London.)
Where is it happening?
Masaryk room, 16 Taviton Street, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
