The absence

Respected Weld DolencMember of the MKZ Management Board, Dear Sir Vladimir KukavicaMKZ board member, respected Mag. Petra NovakVD CEO of MKZ, I received your invitation to the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Mladinska knjiga, which will be held on May 26th at the Linhart Hall of Cankarjev dom. It also says:

“The keynote speaker of the event will be the President of the Republic of Slovenia dr. Nataša Pirc Musarthe guests will also be addressed by academic painter and illustrator Jelka Reichman.

Levstik’s Lifetime Achievement Award winners will be awarded by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia dr. Robert Golob. ”

I would like to announce that the ceremony I knew and – as a veteran of the youth book – was looking forward, I will not attend. It seems unacceptable to me that no word creator, a representative of those who have been and have been the spine of the publishing house and its editions, will not speak on it. That there will be no misunderstanding: I am extremely appreciated by Jelka Reichman, with my sons and grandchildren, and I have no doubt that the respected master of images will enrich the ceremony with her warm humanity and warm joke, but that seems too little.

I feel the absence of word creators in the official part of the ceremony as an arrogant slapout to all those indispensable authors who wrote Slovene picture books and Slovenian encyclopedia for eight decades, creating Ciciban, the Paths of Youth and the New Slovenian Book, and a few tens of book collections, to which the publishing house can proudly refer to the high jubilee. I do not know the reasons for this unusual, exclusive organizational decision and I do not want to guess about them, as I do not find it appropriate to predict what – symbolic and concrete – the absence of word artists means for the future of the largest Slovenian publishing house.

Dear Sirs, in the light of me, I hope, do not blame if, as a longtime publishing worker, I am not particularly interested in what kurto -encouraging will be told about the Slovenian book and your publishing house at the ceremony, and not in whose name (and with what competence) the Levstik Award will be awarded. That is why I will not attend a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Mladinska knjiga, where Cankar, Linhart, Levstik and many others will be just silent observers.

With greetings and congratulations to the winners,

Aleš Berger, editor at Mladinska knjiga (1978–2008), Schwentner’s Lifetime Achievement Award, 2008.

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The article is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily express the views of the editorial board.