Bauer, Jana: - Jana Bauer (1975) is a popular author of literature for children and teenagers. She grew up in Kočevje, Slovenia, spending every summer with her granny by the river Kolpa. Her father was a passionate storyteller and it is his legends about witches, ghosts and smugglers that had the greatest impact on the development of her imagination. With her childhood full of pleasant reveries behind her, she went to study dramaturgy at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana. After graduating, she devoted her time to writing fantasy stories for children. Her debut novel The Witch Vanisher (nominated for the Večernica Prize, with the English version published in the US) was followed by a series of detective stories about Fokus and Kolumna. However, she won by far the greatest popularity among the young readers with the illustrated fairytale Scary Fairy in Wicked Wood, published in 2011 and translated so far into 17 languages, among them Icelandic, Mongolian, Turkish, Malayalam and Indonesian. It received the Golden Pear award and was nominated for both the Večernica and Desetnica Awards (2013). In German translation the audiobook Die Kleine Gruselfee became the Book of the Month (by Jury der Deutschen Akademie fur KJL), while in Croatia it was listed among recommended works for children. In Lithuania, it received the IBBY award for the best artistic translation. Most recently it received the main award at the international Macedonian literary festival (Another Story). In 2020 she received Desetnica Award from the Slovene Writers' Association for her recent book Ding Dong Stories, her writing features a blend of witty, amusing characters with compelling and gripping stories. Although her books are meant for children, their magic and originality give great pleasure to readers of all generations. Being also an editor, Jana Bauer dedicates a great deal of her time to books by other authors as well.