Gabriela Babnik (1979) is a writer, literary critic and translator who lives between Ljubljana and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Her first novel, Cotton Skin (Koža iz bombaža), was published in 2007 and was awarded the Best Debut Award of the Slovenian Book Fair. Her second novel, In the Tall Grass (V visoki travi, 2009), was shortlisted for the Kresnik Award for best novel of the year, and her third novel, Dry Season (Sušna doba), was published in 2012 and received the European Union Prize for Literature, and her fourth novel, Intimately (Intimno, 2015), was once again shortlisted for the Kresnik Award for the best novel of the year. Babnik has also published a collection of short stories, while her latest novel, Three Deaths (Tri smrti) was published in May 2019.
“Gabriela Babnik is one of the foremost European novelists writing today. She is breaking new ground in literary representations of global intercultural relationships, proving, in particular, that European whiteness need not relate itself to African postcolonial identities and locations on neo-imperial terms.”Dr. Ranka Primorac, Lecturer in English at the University of Southampton and an Associate of the Department of African Languages and Cultures at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London
Awards and nominations
Best Debut Award of the Slovenian Book Fair2007
Shortlisted for the Kresnik Award for best novel of the year2010, 2016
European Union Prize for Literature2013
Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award2017