Ales Debeljak is a Slovene writer based in Ljubljana. He is currently chair of the cultural studies department at the University of Ljubljana. A poet and social analyst, he has published many books, including Dictionary of Silence, The City and the Child, Reluctant modernity : the institution of art and its historical forms, Anxious Moments, Twilight of Idols: The Tragedy of Yugoslavia and Individualism and Literary Metaphors of the Nation.