Milena Miklavčič

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Milena Miklavčič – Author, Journalist, and Oral History Researcher

In the late 1980s, Milena Miklavčič (born in 1952) began working at Radio Sora. She often says that this period was one of the most creative and productive phases of her life.

Even then, she was deeply interested in how people in Slovenia had lived from the late nineteenth century to the present day, with a particular focus on sexuality and intimate relationships—subjects that were, and in many ways still are, considered taboo in public discourse.

She first presented these stories in the popular radio programme Interesting People Live Among Us. After little more than a year, the project grew into a newspaper column entitled Destinies (Usode) in the regional newspaper Gorenjski glas. The column continues to be published to this day.

Some experts advised her not to delve into intimate details, but she was always drawn precisely to those subjects that others preferred to leave unspoken.

“The silence surrounding sexuality was—and still is—like an omertà,” says Milena Miklavčič.

The fact that she succeeded in breaking that silence was, in many ways, remarkable. Even today, discussions about sexuality within families remain rare. As a result, younger generations often know very little about the intimate lives of their parents and ancestors.

When she first joined the radio station, she began by writing stories for children in a programme called Zakajček’s Corner. These stories were later published in her first children's book, The Alphabet from Zakajček Street (1991).

Her children's book Left at the Oak Tree was named Slovenia’s Best Self-Published Book in 2007. Her favourite adventure novel for children, Full Stop on the Letter B, appeared in 2008. It was followed by numerous other titles, including Šnitka (2009), Marička and the Teddy Bear (2010), Who Destroyed the Swallow’s Nest?, Gal and the Hungry Pears (2011), The Little-Great Gardener (2012), Julia from Zakajček Street, Ajda and the Witch’s Troubles in Fairyland (2018), Cooking Mischief (2021), and others.

In 2004, she published Destinies (Usode), followed six years later by Women (Ženske), a book that went through several editions, the most recent revised edition appearing in 2023. Readers also warmly embraced her crime novel Where Is the Child? (Kje je otrok?).

Her novel Soft as a Razor (Mehko kot britev), published in May 2025, is a work of fiction inspired by stories from the collection Fire, Arse and Snakes Are Not for Playing With. It also highlights the life story of Aunt Rozi, who worked as a maid in Trieste. The novel is scheduled to be published in Croatia and is available through e-Beletrina, directly from the author, and in bookstores and online bookshops.

The Fire, Arse and Snakes Are Not for Playing With Collection

The first volume of Fire, Arse and Snakes Are Not for Playing With was followed by a second volume in 2017, subtitled Grandmothers, Daughters, Granddaughters. In 2019, she published Men’s Stories. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the fourth volume appeared under the title Look, My People Are Coming!. The fifth volume, Lučka’s Stories and Other Tales, introduces readers to the world of a fortune teller who spent more than forty years recording the stories of the people whose futures she predicted.

Across approximately 1,700 pages, the collection contains thousands of stories drawn from real life. The books belong to the field of citizen science and are unique within Slovenian literature.

Milena, who describes herself as “the last storyteller,” is primarily interested in the lives of women within the family: their relationships with husbands, children, mothers-in-law, and themselves. The testimonies she has collected reveal a world that people often hide from others—a world marked by suffering, poverty, and sexual violence. Yet it is also a world filled with warmth, resilience, humour, and moments of happiness that continue to inspire and comfort.

Literary and Cultural Activities

For almost a decade, Milena Miklavčič moderated literary and cultural evenings with prominent Slovenian artists and writers at the Ivan Tavčar Library in Škofja Loka and later in Žiri.

For several years, she organised a literary competition as part of the Slovenian Lace-Making Festival. A similar competition in Trebnje resulted in the publication of the book Stories About Good People.

She continues to write advice columns addressing everyday life issues in the Slovenian newspaper Nedelo under the heading Milena Advises. Her columns also appear regularly in the magazines Reporter and Domovina.

She maintains a personal blog, Jutri 2052 (Tomorrow 2052), and regularly appears as a guest in numerous podcasts.

Film and Theatre Adaptations

The first volume of Fire, Arse and Snakes Are Not for Playing With attracted the attention of film director Urška Djukić, who adapted some of the collected stories into the animated documentary Grandma’s Sexual Life (Babičino seksualno življenje).

The film received numerous international awards and, among other honours, won the European Film Award for Best Short Film in Reykjavik.

In the 2021/22 theatre season, director Mirjana Medojević staged Dragonfly Apparitions (Prividi kačjega pastirja) at SNG Maribor, inspired by stories from Fire, Arse and Snakes Are Not for Playing With.

Academic Recognition

The distinguished Slovenian sociologist Zdravko Mlinar wrote about the first volume:

“From a sociological perspective, this book represents both a challenge and an opportunity to address important substantive, methodological, and epistemological questions concerning the inclusion of ordinary people in participatory research—an approach that is currently gaining increasing prominence internationally. Beneath its accessible style lie significant insights that professional researchers in this field cannot afford to overlook.”

Mlinar further observed that while academic studies have documented major changes in sexual culture and social life over recent decades, few have demonstrated the depth and scale of these transformations as convincingly as the testimonies of older women collected by Milena Miklavčič.

These narratives reveal not only the realities of sexuality but also its connections to broader aspects of everyday life. For sociologists, they provide a valuable source of information and inspiration, as well as a compelling example of how carefully gathered personal testimonies can enrich our understanding of social history.

Today, Milena Miklavčič's work stands as one of the most extensive collections of oral histories ever assembled in Slovenia, preserving voices and experiences that might otherwise have been lost forever.

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