France Pibernik

France Pibernik (September 2, 1928 – April 21, 2021) was a Slovene poet, author, essayist, and literary historian.^[1][2][3]

Pibernik was born in Suhadole.^[1][3][4] He attended high school in Kranj and then enrolled in Slavic studies in Ljubljana,^[4] where he graduated in 1955.^[1] Until 1958 he taught at a middle school at Dobrovo in the Gorizia Hills, and after that at the high school in Kranj until his retirement in 1990.^[1][2][4] In the foreword to his book Janez Jalen, it is written about Pibernik that "as for many knowledgeable and intellectually diverse people, it is also true of him that, in the years when their work lives are no longer at the forefront, they are even more active and productive."^[5]

Initially, Pibernik's poetry was close to Neo-Romantic currents, and it later developed in the direction of Modernism.^[1][2] His first poetry collection, Bregovi ulice (1960),^[3] was followed by more volumes, among which his poetry collection Ajdova znamenja is the most notable. The most important part of Pibernik's works on literature are the volumes Med tradicijo in modernizmom (Between Tradition and Modernism), Med modernizmom in avantgardo (Between Modernism and the Avant-Garde), and Čas romana (The Era of the Novel). The first two present the author's correspondence with poets, and Čas romana with the prose writers. As a literary historian, Pibernik focused on work written during the Second World War and by Slovenes in exile, which was suppressed in Slovenia for political and ideological reasons.^[1][2][3][4] These include volumes on the poetry of France Balantič and Ivan Hribovšek, the anthology Jutro pozabljenih (Dawn of the Forgotten, 1991), the volume Temni zaliv Franceta Balantiča (The Dark Bay of France Balantič), his study Slovenski dunajski krog 1941–1945 (The Slovenian Vienna Circle, 1941–1945), and his biography of Karel Mauser.

In his last decade, Pibernik devoted himself mainly to researching the lives and works of writers that were politically banned and suppressed under the communist regime in Slovenia. He published many books on this topic, starting with an anthology:

• 2008: Trubar Award for exceptional contributions to the preservation of the Slovenian written cultural heritage, conferred by the National and University Library of Slovenia^[6]
• 2013: honorary citizen of Kranj
• Honorary member of the Celje Hermagoras Society