Tomaz Salamun (1941, Zagreb) has published some thirty collection of poems in Slovenia, causing a great upheaval in Slovenian literature already with the first one (Poker, 1966): He jettisoned the intimist and traditional poetic imagery, replacing it with a free interplay of all with all. As an additional element of shock for the conservative reader he introduced the unmistakable presence of the body throughout the text. Salamun has never lost his youthful poetic energy, even today, after having received all the highest accolades his country can bestow and been appointed Cultural Attaché with the Slovenian Consulate in New York, he still remains in part enfant terrible he was in the sixties, when he formed part of then avant-garde.
In certain respects Salamun enjoys more popularity abroad than at home; his literary traces can be found throughout Europe, while in the United States he is considered one of the most extensively translated contemporary European poets. By now his fifty one translated poetry collections appeared in dozen of languages. His verse is held in high regard by both young generation American poets and the more central figures, such as Jorie Graham, Robert Creeley, John Ashbery, Robert Hass (author of the introduction to Salamun's 1988 Selected Poems published by Ecco Press), and Charles Simic (editor of Salamun's most recent collections published by Harcourt.