Sanje is a distinguished publisher of quality fiction and nonfiction for both adults and children. It operates in Slovenia and beyond.
Projects and activites
- Publishers of books, ebooks, audiobooks and music – in Slovenian, English and selected other languages.
- International respresentative of many fine authors from Slovenia and some other countries. See more about this.
- House of Dreaming Books – independent book shop in Ljubljana city centre.
- Own distribution network of books in Slovenia.
- Wholeseller to major national libraries internationally.
- Organiser of literary events and festival of music, poetry and wine - Sanje Medana, nights of poetry and wine.
- Organiser of national festival Book Night which take place each April 23rd in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Monte Negro.
If you are interested in our work, please do write us.
Note: Sanje will soon have its international home at sanjepublishing.com.
Sanje
Sanje was founded in 1997, it started with one book of poetry of forgotten author Frane Milčinski Ježek, who is today considered a world class artists of 20th century. His children story Little Sleepy Star (Zvezdica Zaspanka), which was first written for puppet theater and then a radio play (first radio play for children in Yugoslavia), has been published with great success as an illustrated children picture book. The book has been translated to over 7 languages so far.
Another great author represented by Sanje is Vladimir Bartol. His novel Alamut, written back in 1938, is one of greatest forgotten masterpieces of European literature. The book has been republished in 2002 and gained a lot of international attention. Just in Slovenia over 100.000 copies were sold, and novel has been translated to about 30 languages so far.
Alamut is not just a spectacular and dramatic story. It is not just another interesting piece of a well-researched history from 11th century Iran. It is above all a novel of deep philosophical dimensions, and as such, it precedes the great challenges of our age. It was written in time of a great disturbance in Europe in 1938 in hype of fascism and nazism. The story itself may be felt by the contemporary reader as a bit naive in its style and narrative, but the reader - even the most demanding one - who will insist to read it till the very last page, will strongly feel the power and importance of the underlying question, and will be touched and provoked by deep and somehow urgent, unavoidable questions of our time the novel invokes. The reader is left in suspense, unsatisfied, with no clear answers and feelings. The novel has challenged the reader to rethink the ethics, the boundaries and the meaning of "the good and the evil". There is no good and evil within known conventional standards, there is no happy end either. It challenges the reader to think about the very basics - our instincts, principles and behavior patterns, which determine the way of our civilization.
Sanje is also a music publisher and organiser of festivals. In 2002 it launched the 1st annual Sanje Festival, festival of imagination and creativity, which has since featured over 4,000 events from the field of literature, music, storytelling, art and science.
See bellow video of Damir Imamović, reknowned Bosnian singer of sevdah music, playing Što ćemo ljubav kriti (Ah, what should we hide our love away for) at Sanje Medana festival.
You can also watch a video of World Histeria Orchestra performing at Festival Sanje in Ljubljana. Orchestra is composed of more than hundred musicians from over twenty countries.
Festival Sanje is intercultural artistic event that celebrates freedom of all people throughout the world, especially their creativity. It focuses on musicians, poets and other artists who reflect our current troubled reality and express the need for a long lost true humanity in ourselves, in a world of menacing global capitalism.
You can also browse through festival Sanje's playlist on YT.
In Slovenia Sanje publishes Orhan Pamuk, Markus Zusak, Elif Shafak, Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki Murakami, Colum McCann, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Neil Gaiman, Walter Moers, Roald Dahl, Tove Jansson and many other great international authors.
In 2009 Sanje established bookshop House of Dreaming Books. It is one largest and also one of last remaining independent bookshops in Slovenia. You find it at Trubarjeva 29 in Ljubljana center district.
Sanje is the initiator of Book Night (Noč knjige) in Slovenia. Coproduced with partners from Croatia, it brought together libraries, bookshops, schools and other institutions from across Slovenia and featured over 500 events in over 150 cities and villages annually on World Book Day (23 April). The project is now expanding internationally: our dream is that it will one day become a global festival of all 5.000+ living languages on Earth.
Sanje is also the initiator of the campaign against tax on books in Slovenia. The ambition is to widen the initiative to an international and even planetary level.
Selected music published by Sanje:
A selection of awards received by Sanje:
- Best Designed Book Of The Year (2018, overall winner): Nekaj zelo zelo lepega (Something very very beautiful - collected poetry for children by Neža Maurer)
- Best Designed book Of The year (2018, category: poetry): Zbogom, fašisti (Marko Tomaš: Goodbye, fascists)
- The Golden Pear: the sign of quality children's literature presented by Pionirska- the centre for children's literature and librarianship. 2006-2018: 27 books published by Sanje received Golden Pear award.
- Best Young Translator of 2012: Ana Barič Moder for the translation of Les fleurs bleues by Raymond Queneau
- International Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2012 presented by CEI and SEEMO: Matej Šurc and Blaž Zgaga for the trilogy In the Name of the State
- Best Young Translator of 2011: Stana Anželj for the translation of Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher by Walter Moers
- Most Beautiful Original Slovenian Children’s Book of 2010 (Fran Milčinski – Ježek, Tina Volarič: Zgodba o zamorčku Bambuleju in vrtoglavi žirafi)
- Slovenian Publisher of the Year 2010
- Special Prize for Best Illustrated Book of 2009 (Fran Milčinski - Ana Razpotnik Donati: Laž in njen ženin)
- Best Young Translator of 2008: Katja Zakrajšek for the translation of The Book of Salt by Monique Truong,
- Sovre Award – the highest national prize translation awarded to Nives Vidrih (the following translation was mentioned in the explanation of the jury: Sestra by Jachym Topol, Sanje, 2008)
- Praise for best bookcover at Brumen, Biennale of Visual Messages, 2007 (Sestra, design by Matej Koren)
- Best Debut Novel of 2006 (Ime tvoje zvezde je Bilhadi by Magda Reja)
- Best Design of 2006 (Marjana by Katarina Lavš)
- Best Design of 2005 (Faust by J.W.Goethe, the first complete translation in Slovenian)
- Best Design of the Year 2004 (Idiot by F.M.Dostoevsky)
- Best Design of 2001 (a series of audiobooks based on poetry by France Prešeren)