Svetlana Velmar Janković
was born, went to school and lives in Belgrade. As a secretary and editor of the magazine Književnost (Literature), she was a member of the editing board led by Eli Finci and the one led by Zoran Mišić. She spent a number of years editing for the Publishing House Prosveta, working on the editions of contemporary Yugoslav prose and essayistic writing. She founded the library Baština (Legacy).
She has published novels: Ožiljak (Scar, 1956, second adapted edition 1999), Lagum (Dungeon, 1999), Bezdno (The Bottomless, 1995), Nigdina (Nowhere, 2000) and Vostanije (The Uprising, 2004);
the essays: Savremenici (The Contemporaries, 1968), Ukletnici (The Cursed, 1993) and Izabranici (The Chosen, 2005);
the story collections: Dorćol (1981), Vračar (1994), Glasovi (Voices, 1997), Knjiga za Marka (A Book for Marko, 1998), Očarane naočare (Spell-bound Spectacles, 2006) and Sedam mojih drugara (Seven of My Pals, 1997); the prayer Svetilnik (1998);
the dramas Knez Mihailo (Prince Mihailo, 1994) and Žezlo (Scepter, 2001); the novelised biography Prozraci (Rays Through, 2003) and the book Kapija Balkana (The Gates of the Balkans, a quick guide through the history of Belgrade, 2011).
Awards: Isidora Sekulić, Ivo Andrić, Meša Selimović, Đorđe Jovanović, Bora Stanković, Award of the Serbian National Library for the most read book of 1992, the NIN Award in 1995, Neven Award, Politikin zabavnik Award, 6. april for life work on Belgrade, awards Mišićev dukat, Ramonda serbica, Stefan Mitrov Ljubiša and Jack Konfino.
Her works have been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Bulgarian, Korean and Hungarian.
Svetlana Velmar Janković is a permanent member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.