Mara Švel-Gamiršek

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

Short biography

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

Mara Švel-Gamiršek attended the elementary school in Sremska Mitrovica. She continued her education in gymnasium in Sušak, and after that, she went to study medicine.

Mara Švel-Gamiršek didn't complete her medical degree since she married. 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]

Works

• 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

Works about Mara Švel-Gamiršek

• 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.

Honors

The elementary school in Vrbanja, in eastern Croatia, is named after Mara Švel-Gamiršek.

References

External links

• (Croatian) LZMK / Hrvatska enciklopedija: Švel-Gamiršek, Mara
• (Croatian) Oš Mara Švel-Gamiršek Vrbanja About the name of elementary school in Vrbanja
• (Croatian) Matica hrvatska - ogranak Tovarnik Hrvatska riječ u Srijemu - Antologija srijemskih pisaca (photo)
• Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Katica Čorkalo: Scientific works