Slavko Pregl

Vekoslav Pregl, always known as Slavko, was born in Ljubljana on 9 September 1945. He attended primary school and grammar school in Šentvid, on the northern edge of Ljubljana. As a grammar school pupil he was editor of the school magazine Utripi and began writing short humorous pieces, fables and satires, which appeared in magazines and newspapers and won him several prizes. As a young man he also played in the accordion orchestra of the Svoboda cultural society in Šentvid.

He studied at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Ljubljana and graduated in 1972. During his student years he was a member of the editorial board of the student paper Tribuna and contributed to Mladina and the satirical magazine Pavliha.

From 1969 Pregl was editor in chief of Mladina. Under his editorship the paper changed from a newspaper to a magazine format, and in 1970 it received the Tomšič Prize for journalism as the publication that had made the biggest leap in quality in a year.

From 1969 to 1991 he worked at Mladinska knjiga, Slovenia's largest publisher of books for young readers. He led its co-production unit, which became an internationally known publisher of art monographs and prints and was among the first importers of computers into Yugoslavia, and in 1974 he helped set up the book club Svet knjige.

In 1991 he founded his own publishing house, EWO, which he ran until 2002. The business ended badly; he later said Russian business partners had cheated him, and he wrote about the experience with humour in books including S knjigo po svetu. From 2003 he worked as a self employed writer.

Pregl wrote more than fifty books, most of them for children and teenagers, and his work was translated into fifteen languages. His first book for young readers, Odprava zelenega zmaja (The Expedition of the Green Dragon, 1976), became almost a folk classic, and it and Geniji v kratkih hlačah (Geniuses in Short Pants) were adapted as television series.

His stories were realistic and set in everyday city life, often built on real people, and were known for their cheerfulness, high spirits and humour. A recurring theme was how adults and young people see each other, and how children and teenagers cope with problems in their families and in society. Other well known titles include Priročnik za klatenje (A Handbook for Vagrancy, 1977), Počesane muhe (1993), Srebro iz modre špilje (Silver from the Blue Cavern, 2003), Usodni telefon (The Fatal Telephone, 2004) and Geniji brez hlač (Geniuses Without Pants, 2009). He also wrote fables and satire for adults.

Pregl held many leading posts in Slovene book culture. He was president of the Slovene Publishers' Association from 1998 to 2002, president of the Reading Badge Society from 2004 to 2008, and vice president and then, from the end of 2007 to 2009, president of the Slovene Writers' Association. Between 2000 and 2002 he chaired the National Council for Culture.

In 2009 he became the first director of the newly created, government funded Slovenian Book Agency, where he helped set up a system of support for the whole book chain from authors to readers, and he led it until he retired in 2012. He was a co-founder of the civic movement Forum 21 and its vice president from 2004. In his final years he still wrote opinion pieces, warning in Delo in 2025 about the long underfunding of school libraries.

Pregl's son is the artist and activist Arjan Pregl, and his brother was the former Yugoslav politician and businessman Kazimir Živko Pregl. He was a long time member of Slovene PEN and was known for good humoured public advocacy of equality, including for the work of women writers.

Slavko Pregl died on 10 August 2026, in his 81st year, aged 80. No cause of death was made public. His death was reported by RTV Slovenija, Delo and Dnevnik, and the Reading Badge Society published a tribute. He was buried at Žale cemetery in Ljubljana.

Slovene PEN wrote that he had been distinguished by a "sharp, critical pen, often seasoned with humour, with which he tirelessly fought for freedom of expression, the compassionate coexistence of people and the position of writers and books in Slovene society," and described his legacy as literary, activist and organisational.

Pregl is regarded as one of the classics of contemporary Slovene children's and youth literature, and several of his books were chosen for Rastem s knjigo, the national programme that gives a book to every pupil in particular school years.

His awards included the Levstik Award in 1976 for Geniji v kratkih hlačah, the Grand Prix Aleko for satire in Sofia in 2003, the Večernica in 2004 for Srebro iz modre špilje, the Desetnica in 2005 for Usodni telefon, the Schwentner Award for lifetime achievement in publishing in 2007, the Župančič Award in 2010, several Rastem s knjigo awards, the Yugra Prize in Russia in 2016 and the Levstik Award for lifetime achievement in 2017. In 2017 he also received the Order of Merit for his exceptional contribution to Slovene culture and to young people's reading.