Condolences of Crown Prince Alexander II and the members of the Advisory bodies of the Crown on the death of academician Svetlana Velmar Jankovic

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Alexander II and the members of the Advisory bodies of the Crown sadly announce that Svetlana Velmar Jankovic, a member of the Crown Council, academician and holder of the order of the White Eagle of the first degree, passed away. Svetlana Velmar Jankovic will remain ever-present in the culture and history of the Serbian people as a writer, as a witness of time, observer and participant in the events that marked the 20th century.

Svetlana Velmar-Jankovic was born in Belgrade, February 1, 1933. She was a Serbian writer and SASA academician. She was the daughter of Vladimir Velmar-Jankovic, Serbian writer and a member of the Nedic government of national salvation in World War II.

After the war, she attended the fourth women’s high school. She studied French literature with Dr Miodrag Ibrovac and Dr Nikola Banasevic and Latin under the supervision of Dr Misa Djuric. She first worked as a journalist at “Children’s Press” and later as secretary and editor of the “Literature” magazine. Later on she edited the contemporary Yugoslav prose and essays at the Prosveta Publishing House. She graduated French language and literature. She was also the editor of the Prosveta Publishing House.

She was elected Corresponding member of the SerbianAcademy of Sciences and Arts November 2, 2006, and a regular member on November 5, 2009.

She has received numerous awards and prizes for her work, including the Isidora Sekulić (1969), Ivo Andrić (1982), Meša Selimović (1991). She won the National Library of Serbia award for most read book of 1992, award Đorđe Jovanović (1994), Bora Stanković (1995) and the NIN Prize for novel of the year for Bezdno (1996).

Her publications include the novels: Ožiljak (1956, second revised edition 1999), Lagum (1990), Bezdno (1995) and Nigdina (2000); an autobiographical novel, Prozraci (2003); two collections of essays Savremenici (1968) and Ukletnici (1993); three collections of short stories Dorćol (1981), Vračar (1994) and Glasovi (1997); the play Knez Mihailo (1994) and book of plays Žezlo (2001); the children’s book Knjiga za Marka (1998); and the prayer book Svetilnik (1998).