Ifigenija Simonović (1953) writes poems, essays, and texts for children, translates and paints. A member of the Slovene Writers’ Association since 1980, she was President of the Slovene PEN Centre between 2017 and 2020. Most notable among her twelve poetry collections are the first, Postopna razbremenitev (Gradual Relief) (Mladinska knjiga, 1972) and latest, Bi bila drevo (Would I Be a Tree) (Mladinska knjiga, 2023), and among her four books of essays on theatre, Navzven navznoter (Outwardly, Inwardly) (MGL, 2005). She has translated into Slovene The Mastery of Movement by Rudolf Laban, To be an actor by Simon Callow, and a selection of poems by Carol Ann Duffy entitled in Slovene Grejem njene bisere (Warming Her Pearls) after one of the selected poems. One of her special projects was the transcribing and publishing of eight volumes of poetry by Vitomil Zupan, one of the key Slovene writers in the second half of the 20th century who was one of the intellectuals imprisoned by the communist regime (1948 - 54, 2400 pages, 27 completed poetry collections). Between 1978 and 2003 she lived in London and during this time preformed at four international Poetry Olympics events.