Tomaž
Tomaž is an extended poem assembled from assembled by Joshua Beckman from his recorded conversations with one of the foundational figures of the European avant-garde, Tomaž Šalamun. This book includes photographs and translated original poems throughout, some of which are presented for the first time in English, and it covers the first forty years of his life in his own words. With careful articulation and generosity of attention, Joshua Beckman becomes a conduit for the language of Šalamun, assembling an autobiographic poem in a way that only a poet, translator, and friend could.
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The author of more than forty poetry collections, with more than a dozen in English translation, Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun (July 4, 1941–December 27, 2014) is considered to be one of the most prominent poets of the Eastern European avant-garde. He published his first collection, Poker, in 1966 at the age of twenty-five. Early in his career, he edited the literary magazine Perspektive, for which he was briefly jailed on political charges. He later studied art history at the University of Ljubljana before becoming a Fulbright Fellow at Columbia University and then studying at the University of Iowa. After he was invited to exhibit his work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970, Śalamun lived for periods of time in the United States, working as the Slovenian Cultural Attaché in the 1990s and later teaching at a number of American universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Alabama. Celebrated through many accolades, he was the recipient of the prestigious Jenko Prize and Slovenia’s Prešeren and Mladost Prizes. Šalamun passed away on December 27, 2014, in Ljubljana.
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