Polona Lovšin

Biography

The first book Polona Lovšin illustrated was the Russian fairy tale “Medved išče pestunjo” (“The Bear Looks for a Nanny”), published by Mladinska knjiga in Ljubljana. Sources give different dates: by some accounts it was 2003, by others her books and magazine work began as early as the early 1990s.

She was born on 10 June 1973 in Ljubljana, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

She studied in the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana; by some accounts, in the class of Herman Gvardjančič, a Slovene artist. The year she graduated is not given. In 2003 she showed work at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in the exhibition “DOCET – illustratori dal mondo”.

After her first book came work in the children’s magazines “Zmajček”, “Cicido”, “Ciciban” and “Kekec”. At the same time she designed school textbooks and picture books. Her main publisher is Mladinska knjiga, but she also works for other Slovene publishers and for foreign ones, among them Pan Macmillan, Penguin and Templar Publishing.

The list of books with her pictures is long, and it shows how her commissions changed. In 2005 came “Bobek in barčica” and “Dvorec” (“The Manor”); in 2007 “Snežroža” (a Slovene version of Snow White), “Medo reši vsako zmedo” (“Teddy Sorts Out Every Muddle”) and “Klepetava želva” (“The Chatty Tortoise”); in 2009 “Košastka Katka” (“Katka the Kitten”) and “O dečku, ki se je bal vode” (“About the Boy Who Was Afraid of Water”). Then “Prišel je velikanski lev” (“A Giant Lion Has Come”) and “Kaj slišiš, mali mišek?” (“What Do You Hear, Little Mouse?”), both 2010; “Slavček in granatno jabolko” (“The Nightingale and the Pomegranate”), 2012; and “Princesa srca” (“The Princess of the Heart”), 2013. In 2017–2018 four books about family appeared: “Moja babica” (“My Grandmother”), “Moj dedek” (“My Grandfather”), “Moj očka” (“My Dad”) and “Moja mamica” (“My Mum”). Later came “Jabolka so najboljša, ko jih zmanjka” (“Apples Are Best When They Run Out”) and “Drevo” (“The Tree”), both 2019; “Deklica z vžigalicami” (“The Little Match Girl”), 2021; “Balabuga”, 2022; “Sinica in taščica” (“The Great Tit and the Robin”), 2022; “Val in luna na morju” (“The Wave and the Moon at Sea”) and “Na dvorišču ni ograje” (“There Is No Fence in the Yard”), both 2023; and “Berta”, “Mali kakadu” (“The Little Cockatoo”) and “Prigode polžka Petra” (“The Adventures of Peter the Snail”), 2024. I give the titles in English translation from the Slovene originals; most of them, it seems, have no established English editions.

Awards and nominations begin in the middle of the 2000s. “Bobek in barčica” was nominated for the prize for the best original Slovene picture book (the year is given as 2004 or 2006), and around the same time the book was included in the “White Ravens” catalogue. By several accounts, “Medo reši vsako zmedo” received an award for an original Slovene picture book in 2006; by other accounts it was only nominated in 2008 for the Kristina Brenkova Prize. “Princesa srca” was nominated for the same prize in 2014.

In 2021 Lovšin was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). That year the book “Drevo” (text by Tomaž Pengov) was nominated for the Levstik Award, and in 2023 “Balabuga” (text by Tina Vrščaj) was nominated for it as well. Her illustrations for “Deklica z vžigalicami”, published by Sanje, received an honourable mention in 2022 at the “3x3 International Illustration Show” in New York.

She lives and works in Ljubljana.