IZTOK GEISTER (I.G. PLAMEN)

Iztok Geister was born in 1945 in Laško. During his high-school years in Kranj, together with Marko Pogačnik and Marjan Ciglič he edited the Plamenica / Torch school newsletter. The poems and drawings published in this newsletter triggered a severe reaction on the part of local authorities at the time. The collaboration of these three friends in 1966 developed into the conceptual art group OHO (1966 – 1971). Subsequently, in OHO magazine, Geister published his avant-garde poetry under the nickname Plamen / Flame. Together with Tomaž Šalamun, Geister became one of the most important representatives of the Slovenian neoavant-garde of the 70s. He studied at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana.
During the 70s Geister wrote concrete poetry, scientific and in particular ornithological essays, literary essays, radio plays and prose. Over the past fifteen years he has published seventeen books which have introduced to Slovenian language and arts a new genre falling between the essay and science fiction. This achievement earned him the status of one of Slovenia’s leading authors. Geister, together with Dare Šare and Dare Magajna, is one of the founders of the Society for the observation and study of birds of Slovenia (DOPPS). In 1969 Geister was awarded the Golden Bird of Poetry Award, in 2001 the Rožanc Award for essays, and in 2004 the Prešern Fund award for prose. He lives and works in Koper, Slovenia.