Miro Gavran: Author – Croatia

I really am convinced that literature for children and young people should not keep silent on any theme that is a component part of life.

Gavran M.

Miro Gavran is a world-renowned dramatist—the only living playwright to have an international theatre festival organized in his honor. Born in 1961 in a small Croatian village called Gornja Trava, he went on to study dramaturgy at the Academy of Theatre, Film, and Television in Zagreb and had his first theatre play published already at the age of twenty-two.

He made his debut as a prose writer in 1999 with the book Forgotten Son, nominated for the IBBY Honour List 2002 and translated into English, German, and Spanish, among other languages. The novel tells the story of a mentally retarded young man of twenty who returns to his family house he had been sent away from years ago. Critics hesitate whether the novel is meant for the adult or the young reader, which is often the case with Gavran’s prose. Another characteristic feature of his writing is discussing difficult subjects, such as parental divorce (How Dad Won Mum), illness (All Sorts of Things in My Head), alcoholism in the family (Head Over Heels in Love), and war and rape (Try to Forget).

Gavran tries to be as close as possible to the child protagonists and gives them a voice, often using his favorite epistolary form. He stays close to the child reader as well, does not avoid humorous motifs, and inscribes into his novels a message of hope for the future, regardless of the difficulty of the subject discussed.

Miro Gavran has received many prestigious theatre and literary awards. In the area of children’s and young adult literature, he was awarded, among others, The Ivana Brlić Mažuranić Prize for All Sorts of Things in My Head (1992), The Mato Lovrak Prize for the best novel for children for Happy Days (1995), and a Special Prize at the International Festival of Literature for Children and Young People in Sofia, Bulgaria for The Teacher of My Dreams (2007). His books for young readers have been translated into several languages including English, German, Spanish, and Chinese.