Workshop Leaders

Workshop Leader German-Croatian

Andy Jelčić

He studied German and English Studies as well as the two-year post-diploma studies program on literary theory at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Zagreb. Since 1988 he works as a freelance translator, author and journalist and has completed numerous translations of non-fiction and fiction as well as contributions to literary journals and daily newspapers. For his translation of Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis he received the prize from the Croatian Literary Translators Association for the best specialist translation. Also for his translation Robert Musil’s main piece of work Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften [The Man Without Qualities] he received an award, namely the national prize for the best translation.

Andy Jelčić works in a diversity of theaters, architecture associations and museums, amongst others the Museum for Contemporary Art in Zagreb, the Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, the Camera Austria, etc. In addition, he is a member of numerous professional associations, amongst others the Croatian Literary Translators Association, the Austrian Translators Association and the Commission oft he Cultural Ministry of the Republic of Croatia for awarding the national annual prize and the lifetime achievement of translators.

Furthermore, Andy Jelčić is the Croatian representative in CEATL, vice president of the CEATL, leader of the Group Copyright and Digital Rights as well as editorial member of the PETRA project in Brussels.

Workshop Leader Croatian-German

Matthias Jacob

He is docent for literature, translator and journalist, and studied East and South Slavic Philology, Modern German Literature and Art History in Tübingen and Moscow. In the 1980s he conducted numerous study visits to Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1999 until 2004 he was research assistant at the chair for Slavic Philology (literary sciences) at the Department for Slavic Studies of the University of Tübingen. During this time he was also course instructor in adult education (Russian literature). Today, he lives with his wife and daughter in Herrenberg, located between Stuttgart and Tübingen. He conducts introductory literary seminars as assistant lecturer primarily in the area of South-Slavic literatures, writes reviews (for the journal Buchmarkt) and translates fiction and scientific texts from Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian as well as Russian. Since 2005 Matthias Jacob is travel guide for „Biblical Tours / Stuttgart“ of art and cultural travel to Istria, Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Publications: Scientific and journalistic articles on the literature of Russia and South Slavic countries. Literary translations (amongst others): poetic volumes by Andrijana Škunca, Luko Paljetak, Nikica Petrak and Snežana Minić; collaboration on the anthology „admission ticket – Ulaznica. Serbia: A Panorama of Poetry oft he 21st Century“ (2011) and the poetry volume Burn, Baby, Burn by Zvonko Karanović (2013).

Workshop Leader Croatian-German

Dr. Alida Bremer
Foto © Oliver Favre

She was born in 1959 in Split, Croatia, and completed her degree in Comparative Literature Studies, Romance, Slavic and German Studies in Belgrade, Rome, Saarbrücken and Münster. Her PhD she completed in the area of comparative literature studies. For many years she worked as a research assistant and lector at the universities of Münster and Giessen. She was the artistic program director of the book fair in Pula, Istria, the acting manager of the project “Croatia as Focus Country at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2008”, is a freelancer at the S. Fischer Foundation and was awarded a Border Crosser research grant by the Robert Bosch Foundation in the year 2008-2009.

Important publications: Kriminalistische Dekonstruktion: Zur Poetik der postmodernen Kriminalromane [Criminalistic Deconstruction: The Poetics of Postmodern Detektive Stories] (Würzburg 1999);  (ed.): Jugoslawische (Sch)Erben: Probleme und Perspektiven [Yugoslavian Heirs: Problems and Perspectives] (Osnabrück 1993);  (ed.): Literarischer Reiseführer: Istrien [Literary Travel Guide: Istria] (Klagenfurt/Celovec 2008); (edited together with Silvija Hinzmann and Dagmar Schruf): Südliche Licht. 20 Liebeserklärungen an Kroatien [Southern Light: 20 Declarations of Love for Croatia] (Berlin 2008); (edited together with Hermann Wallmann): Kroatische Literatur der Gegenwart in 6 Bänden [Croatian Literature oft he Present in Six Volumes] (Daedalus Verlag 2008); (edited together with KulturKontakt Austria): Zeitgenössische Literatur aus Kroatien [Contemporary Literature from Croatia] (realized: four volumes, planned: ten volumes); (ed.): Fabula rasa. Oder: Zagreb liegt am Meer / Die kroatische Literatur der letzten 25 Jahre [Fabula Rasa: Zagreb is Located at the Sea / Croatian Literature of the Last 25 Years] Die Horen, Volume 229 (1st Quarter, 2008).

Numerous translations from Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian (poetry, novels, short stories, plays, essays amongst others from Predrag Matvejević, Bora Ćosić, Ivana Sajko, Edo Popović, Miroslav Krleža, Milko Valent, Janko Polić Kamov, Antun Šoljan, Veljko Barbieri, Roman Simić, Delimir Rešicki, Slavenka Drakulić, Jakša Fiamengo, Dragan Velikić, Marija Karaklajić, Milena Marković).