Veno Taufer

Veno Taufer
Taufer in 2012
Born	(1933-02-19) 19 February 1933 (age 84) Ljubljana, Drava Banovina, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia)
Occupation	Poet, Playwright, Essayist

Veno Taufer (born 19 February 1933) is a Slovenian poet, essayist, translator and playwright. Together with Dane Zajc and Gregor Strniša, he is considered one of the foremost Slovenian modernist poets of the postwar era. Under the Communist regime, he was a driving force behind alternative cultural and intellectual projects in Socialist Slovenia, which challenged the cultural policies of the Titoist system. During the Slovenian Spring (1988–1990), he actively participated in the efforts for the democratization and independence of Slovenia.

Taufer was born Venceslav Taufer in Ljubljana, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. His father was a left liberal activist, and prominent member of the Sokol athletic movement. Due to his political activities, he was transferred by the Yugoslav conservative regime to the heavily industrialized Central Sava Valley in central Slovenia, where Veno spent his childhood. In 1943, during the German occupation of Yugoslavia in World War II, his father was killed by the Nazis as one of the leaders of the local partisan resistance.