Tom Veber

Tom Veber is an artist that works at the junction of theatre, music, visual art and literature. He mainly writes poetry in free verse, characterized by the questioning of conformist views, a socially critical stance, direct erotic desire, and, as a contrast, meditative depictions of nature and existential self-reflection. He always strives for sincerity to himself and to the world to which he does not belong to as a marginalized individual. He openly addresses the social issues of modern times (environmental and LGBTQ+ community issues, refugee crisis). In his art he explores new approaches to presenting and understanding poetry.

He is also intrigued by interdisciplinary arts, especially in combining poetry with other art forms (acting, dance, film making, visual art, etc.). He also participates in poetry slams and presents his poetic monodrama Realizem je rezerviran za klovne (Realism is reserved for clowns) at diferent festivals in Slovenia.

He won Pesniška olimpijada (Poetry Olympics) in 2018, and made his way to the finals of Pesniški turnir (Poetry tournament) in 2019 and 2022 and Naj pesem (Best poem) competition at Dnevi poezije in vina (Days of poetry and wine) festival in 2020. He also won the poetry award Fanny Haussmann for the best circle of poetry in 2023. His poems were published in Croatia, Hungary, Greece, France, Austria, Germany, Russia and China. Some of his poems were published in the German anthology Mein Schwules Auge, which features work of gay artists and literates from all over the globe. In 2019, he published his literary debut Točka preloma (The breaking point) with Literarna družba Maribor (Literary company Maribor).

In 2021 he presented an exhibition titled Prehajanje elementov (Transition of elements) in University library of Maribor. He also edited anthology of poetic group Psevdopoeti, Milimeter in pol (A milimetre and a half), and anthology Srca v igri – izbor leposlovnih del mladih slovenskih avtoric_jev LGBTQ+ (Hearts in a game – a selection of literary works of young Slovenian LGBTQ+ authors). He organized literary evenings titled Mlada slovenska literatura LGBTQ+ (Young Slovene literature LGBTQ+) at Slovenski dnevi knjige v Mariboru (Slovene days of books in Maribor) in 2018, 2020 , 2021, 2022 and 2023. He is a recipient of the public book agency (JAK) scholarship for a perspective creator in the field of literature.

He took part in a residency in Schrattenberg, Austria, as a part of project Styria-Artist-in-Residence-Scholarship in 2021. In 2022, he took part in a residency in the house of Alojz Kocijančič in Kubed and in the year 2023 he did a residency in Vienna as part of a project of the coltural ministery of Slovenia and a residency in Cork, Ireland as part of the organization Road Books. His second poetry collection, Do tu sega gozd (Up to here reaches the forest) was published at ŠKUC – Lamba publishing house in 2021.