Simona Škrabec
Simona Škrabec (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1968) 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, German, English, French, Serbian, and Croatian. 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 (UAB). She is a professor at Open University of Catalonia (UOC) 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" (Lineage of Solitude, 2003), "L'atzar de la lluita" (Of Chance and Struggle, 2005) and "Una Pàtria  prestada" (Borrowed Homeland, 2017). With Arnau Pons she directed an extensive project about cultural exchange between Germany and Catalonia in the 20th century ("Grenzen sind Straßen", 2007–2008, 2 vols.). She has translated more than thirty books; among the most notable are translations of several books of Serbian and Slovenian authors into Catalan and Spanish (Kiš, Jančar, Pahor, and Šalamun), as well the translation of most important Catalan authors (Moncada, Cabré, Ferrater, Marçal, etc.) into Slovenian. In translation she also participated in the joint study To Be Translated or Not to Be (2007, directed by Esther Allen) about the situation of  literary translation in the globalized world and in the volume "Constel·lacions variables" (Variable constellations, 2012, with Teresa Irribaren) 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" (Dialogues without Borders, 2011), about foreign authors established in Barcelona and writing in Catalan, and "Les distàncies d’Europa" (The Distances in Europe, 2013), an interdisciplinary quest about Europe's future.