Lela B. Njatin

Lela B. Njatin (born 1963) is a Slovene writer and visual artist. She is best known for her novel Nestrpnost (Intolerance) and her conceptual art installations.

Njatin was born in Ljubljana in 1963. She studied Comparative literature and Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana. She worked as an editor and a public relations consultant. She mostly writes short stories that have been published in several anthologies at home and abroad. Her 1988 novel Nestrpnost (Intolerance) won her critical acclaim and has been reprinted and also translated into Croatian (Croatian title Netrpeljivost). Her fairy tale Velikanovo srce (The Giant’s Heart) was nominated for the Večernica Award and has also been translated into Czech (Czech title Obrovo srce) and Croatian (Croatian title Divovo srce). Her work has also been was published in several anthologies abroad, including: Schnellstrasse, Fernlicht/Hitra cesta, ostra luč, Kovič, Grafenauer, Šalamun, Jančar, B. Njatin (Droschlverlag in Mladinska knjiga, Graz - Ljubljana 1990); The Day Tito Died, Jančar, Gradišnik, Virk, B. Njatin, Blatnik (Forrest Books, London 1993); The Third Shore, Women's Fiction from East Central Europe, anthology of ten authors (Northwestern University Press, Evanston 2005). Outstanding is her contribution to a monograph on Antony Gormley (E. H. Gombrich, J. Hutchinson, W. J. T. Mitchell, L. B. Njatin, Phaidon Press, London 1995, revis. ed. 2000). In the field of visual arts she works as a conceptual artist and explores the relation between literature and art. She started by writing conceptual poetry in the 1970s. Mostly she creates mixed-media art installations, among them I didn’t want to know, but I have since come to know (Muzeum, Ljubljana 2005) and Absence, Hommage à Igor Zabel (Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, 2007).