Kajetan Kovič is a Slovene poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

, translator and journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. He is best known for his poems and has written several bestselling children's books

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

.

Kovič was born in Maribor

Maribor

Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....

 in 1931 and spent his childhood in the small town of Poljčane

Poljcane

Poljčane is a small town and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. It lies 35 km south of Maribor and 35 km northeast of Celje. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. It belonged to the Slovenska Bistrica municipality until 2006 when it became an independent...

 and Hrastje-Mota

Hrastje-Mota

Hrastje-Mota is a settlement in the Radenci Municipality in northeastern Slovenia. As its double-barrelled name suggests, it is made up of two settlemets: Hrastje and Mota, both lying on the right bank of the river Mura....

 near Radenci

Radenci

Radenci is a town and a municipality on the right bank of the Mura River in the Mura statistical region of northeastern Slovenia. It is a well-known spa town and was first mentioned in written documents dating to 1436. After 1833, when a new source of mineral water was discovered, it developed...

 in eastern Slovenia. He completed secondary schoool in Maribor and graduated in comparative literature

Comparative literature

Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...

 at the University of Ljubljana

University of Ljubljana

The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...

 in 1956.

He won the Prešeren Foundation Award

Prešeren Award

Prešeren Award is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia awarded each year to one or two eminent Slovene artists...

 in 1967 for his poetry collection Ogenjvoda and the Grand Prešeren Award

Prešeren Award

Prešeren Award is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia awarded each year to one or two eminent Slovene artists...

 in 1978 for his for his poetry collection Labrador

Kovič also established himself as a translator of German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

, Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

, Croatian

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

, Serbian

Serbian language

Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....

 and Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 poetry into Slovene. He also translated the poems that France Prešeren

France Prešeren

France Prešeren was a Slovene Romantic poet. He is considered the Slovene national poet. Although he was not a particularly prolific author, he inspired virtually all Slovene literature thereafter....

 wrote in German into Slovene.

In 1995 he was made a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the national academy of Slovenia, which encompasses science and the arts and brings together the top Slovene researchers and artists as members of the academy....

.

Poetry collections

• Utonil bi (1948)
• Pesmi štirih (1953) co-authered with Janez Menart
  Janez Menart
  Janez Menart has been one of the most influential and most widely sold Slovenian poets, translators and screenwriters from the first post-war generation...
  
  , Ciril Zlobec
  Ciril Zlobec
  Ciril Zlobec is a Slovene poet, writer, translator, journalist and former politician. He is best known for his poems and has published several volumes of poetry...
  
   and Tone Pavček
  Tone Pavček
  Tone Pavček was one of the most influential Slovene poets, translators and essayists from the first post-war generation. He published a number of collections of poetry, well received by readers and critics alike...
  
  
• Prezgodnji dan (1956)
• Korenine vetra (1961)
• Ogenjvoda (1965)
• Vetrnice (1970)
• Mala čitanka (1973)
• Pesmi (1973)
• Labrador (1976)
• Dežele (1988)
• Poletje (1990)
• Letni časi (1992)
• Sibirski ciklus in druge pesmi raznih let (1992)
• Lovec (1993)
• Glas (1998)
• Vrt (2001)
• Kalejdoskop (2001)
• Pesmi (2003)
• Vse poti so (2009)

Prose

• Ne bog ne žival (1965)
• Tekma ali kako je arhitekt Nikolaj preživel konec tedna (1970)
• Iskanje Katarine (1987)
• Pot v Trento: prizori iz navadnega življenja Franca M. (1994)
• Profesor domišljije: ljubljanska zgodba (1996)
• Jutranji sprehajalec (2005)
• Sled sence zarje (2006)
• Mala nebesa (2008)

Children's books

• Franca izpod Klanca (1963)
• Zlata ladja (1969)
• Moj prijatelj Piki Jakob (1972)
• Maček Muri (1975)
• Zgodnje zgodbe (1978)
• Križemkraž (1980)
• Zmaj Direndaj (1981)
• Pajacek in punčka (1984)
• Križemkraž: zgodnje pesmi, zgodnje zgodbe in še malo mačje godbe (1991)
• Mačji sejem (1999)