Simona Škrabec


Simona Škrabec is a Slovene literary critic, essayist and translator who lives and works in Barcelona. She spent her childhood in the small town of Ribnica in the region of Lower Carniola. She has lived in Barcelona since 1992. Skrabec has translated several books from Slovenian to Catalan and from Catalan to Slovenian. In addition to these two languages, she is fluent in Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, German, English and French.

Life and career

Simona Škrabec was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She has lived in Barcelona since 1992. At the University of Ljubljana she received a BA in German philology and comparative literature. In 2002, she obtained a PhD in comparative literature at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is a professor at Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona. Her main interests are the European literature of 20th century and the relation of literature with the construction of historic memory and identity. In 2014, she was elected chair of PEN International's Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee.
She is the author of the books L'estirp de la solitud, L'atzar de la lluita and Una Pàtria prestada. With Arnau Pons she directed an extensive project about cultural exchange between Germany and Catalonia in the 20th century.
She has translated more than thirty books, including several books of Serbian and Slovenian authors into Catalan and Spanish, and the translation of most important Catalan authors into Slovenian.
In translation she also participated in the joint study To Be Translated or Not to Be about the situation of literary translation in the globalized world and in the volume Constel·lacions variables about the impact of digital media in internationalization of literature. In 2016 she directed the PEN International report Culture's Oxygen about the publishing industry in minority languages, commissioned by UNESCO.
She contributes essays and articles about literature in academic and cultural journals and is also a regular literary critic with various Barcelona based newspapers. She has been a member of the editorial board at the humanities journal L'Espill of the University of Valencia since 2007. She has also acted as organizer of several cultural events and symposiums, as a result of which she edited the books Diàlegs sense fronteres, about foreign authors established in Barcelona and writing in Catalan, and Les distàncies d’Europa, an interdisciplinary quest about Europe's future.

Publications

PhD in comparative literature

. Published 2004 by Afers, Valencia.

Authored books

Research reports

London: PEN International; UNESCO , collective volume directed by Esther Allen. Barcelona: PEN and Institut Ramon Llull . with Carme Arenas. Translated by per Sarah Yandell. Barcelona: Institució de les Lletres Catalanes; Institut Ramon Llull

Coordinator of collective volumes

  • , Passatges de la cultura alemanya a la cultura catalana, Volume II, curated with Arnau Pons. Barcelona: GenCat, Institut Ramon Llull
  • . Passatges de la cultura alemanya a la cultura catalana, Volume I, curated with Arnau Pons. Barcelona: GenCat, Institut Ramon Llull

Translations (selection)

Catalan translations

Spanish translations

Slovenian translations

  • Maria Barbal. Intimna dežela . Ljubljana: Študentska Založba.
  • Manuel Molins. Abu Magrib . Sodobna drama v Španiji. Maribor: Litera, 99-216.
  • Blai Bonet. Morje . Ljubljana: Center za slovensko književnost.
  • Josep Maria Benet i Jornet. Želja . Sodobna drama v Španiji. Maribor: Litera, 27-98.
  • Llorenç Villalonga. Bearn ali sobana porcelanastih lutk . Ljubljana: Študentska Založba.
  • Maria-Mercè Marçal. Pasijon po Renée Vivien . Ljubljana: Škuc.
  • Maria Mercè Marçal. Staljeni led . Ljubljana: Škuc,.
  • Maria Barbal. Kamen v melišču . Ljubljana: Študentska Založba.
  • Gabriel Ferrater. Ženske in dnevi Ljubljana: Center za slovensko književnost,.
  • Jaume Cabré. Evnuhova senca . Ljubljana: Študenska Založba.
  • Lluís Maria Todó. Igra izmišljevanja . Ljubljana: Center za slovensko književnost.
  • Jesús Moncada. Proti toku . Ljubljana: Študentska Založba.
  • J.V. Foix. Dnevnik iz leta 1918 . Ljubljana: Center za slovensko književnost.
  • Pere Calders. Kronike prikrite resnice . Ljubljana: Center za slovensko književnost.

Communications and presentations (selection)