Mate Dolenc

Mate Dolenc (born 5 October 1945) is a Slovene writer and translator. He writes novels, collections of short stories, children's books, travelogues and articles.
Dolenc was born in Ljubljana in 1945. He started studying comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana but never completed his studies. He worked at Mladina for a few years in the early 1970s. Since 1973 he works as a free-lance writer. He has written over thirty books, several screenplays and numerous articles. He is also known for his juvenile fiction. His passion for scuba diving is often reflected in the subject matter he chooses for his writing. The Adriatic and its islands have marked many of his books both for adult and young readers. In 2008 his two most successful novels "The Gorjanci Vampire" and "The Sea at the Time of the Eclipse" were made into feature films.
In 1986 he won the Levstik Award for his novel for young readers "Morska dežela na železniški postaji" (The Land of Sea at the Railway Station). In 1995 he won the Prešeren Foundation Award for his novel "Pes z Atlantide" (The Dog from Atlantis) and his collection of short stories "Rum in šah" (Rum and Chess).