Mara Švel-Gamiršek, also known as Mara Schwell (3 January 1900 – 7 December 1975) was Croatian writer from Syrmia. Beside prose, she also wrote poetry.

Early life and education edit

Mara Švel-Gamiršek was born in Sremska Mitrovica, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (today Vojvodina, Serbia), 3 January 1900, in the family of Šokci Croats.

She attended the elementary school in Sremska Mitrovica. She continued her education in gymnasium in Sušak, and after that, she went to study medicine. She didn't complete her medical degree as she married.

Career edit

From 1923, she turned to her literary work. Later, she moved to Zagreb.

She began publishing her works in early 1940s, at Matica hrvatska. Already then, her works were drawing attention from readers. Being Šokica herself,[1] she has described the life of Šokci Croats in her books. In wider sense, she belonged to the phenomenon of žensko šokačko pismo ("female literature of Šokci").[2] She was the working with magazine Hrvatska revija, publishing some of her poetry in it in 1976.[3]

Death and legacy edit

She died in Zagreb, 7 December 1975. The elementary school in Vrbanja, in eastern Croatia, is named after Mara Švel-Gamiršek.

Works edit

  • Šuma i Šokci, 1940
  • Hrast, Zagreb, 1942
  • Portreti nepoznatih žena, 1942
  • Priče za Sveu i Karen, 1967
  • Legende, 1969
  • Izabrana djela, 1970
  • Ovim šorom Jagodo, 1975

References edit

  1. ^ (in Croatian) Udruga Šokačka grana Osijek Archived 2008-01-13 at the Wayback Machine Ajmo Šokci
  2. ^ (in Croatian) Udruga Šokačka grana Osijek Archived 2008-03-12 at the Wayback Machine Okrugli stol
  3. ^ Hrvatska revija Archived 2011-10-03 at the Wayback Machine Bibliography

Further reading edit

  • Katica Čorkalo: Poslanica Mari Švel-Gamiršek / An Epistle to Mara Švel-Gamiršek, in: The papers presented at the scientific conference held in 1997, str. 53-56, Hrašće, Drenovci, 1998.

External links edit