Pavao Pavličić

Pavao Pavličić (Vukovar, 1946) is the most prolific Croatian writer. He graduated from University of Zagreb, in Comparative Literature and Italian Studies, and has worked as university professor at the Department of Comparative Literature. Pavličić is a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a winner of many prestigious literary awards, including Josip i Ivan Kozarac Award (1996) and Vladimir Nazor Award (2015) for Lifetime Achievement.

His bibliography includes over 60 titles for both children and adults. He debuted with a short story collection (The Water Ship, 1972), The Fairy Firemen (1975), The Good Spirit of Zagreb (published in eight reprints since 1976), The Roof Works (1984), Scandal at the Symposium (1985), How to Survive Youth (1997) and Poisonous Paper (2001). He is best known for his numerous and beloved crime novels, such as Blue Rose (1977), The Evening Act (1981), Free Fall (1982), Coral Door (1990), Dixieland (1995), Invisible Letter (1993), The Sad Richman (2002), Museum of Revolution (2012).

Pavličić wrote one of the most popular pages of the children’s literature in Croatia, such as novels Three Boys in Trnje, The Green Tiger, Place in the Heart. His work was translated into Slovenian, Macedonian, Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian, Danish, French, Czech and German.

The list of Pavličić’s achievements is considerable. For the Fairy Firemen he received the A.B. Šimić Award in 1974; in 1986, the Ksaver Šandor Gjalski Award for The Freedom Square in 1986, for Šapudl in 1995 and in 2013 for Museum of Revolution. For Invisible Letter, he won the Miroslav Krleža Award in 1994, and for his children’s novel A Place in the Heart he received the Grigor Vitez and Mato Lovrak Award.

Other than his work of fiction, Pavličić is known for his great contribution to literary theory and history. In 2008, he received the acclaimed Antun Gustav Matoš Award for outstanding literary critic.  

 

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