BOOK CLUB’S LITERARY WALK WITH DAVORKA ŠTEFANEC
The forecast of wind and heavy rains did not prevent us from taking a walk around Koper with Davorka Štefanec, bookseller and author of the young adult fantasy duology Strašilka and Edina. We started by meeting the author on Martinčev Square, where Davorka attended her third and fourth year at the Secondary School of Economics. »As I lived in Izola, I was very unhappy I had to go to high school in Piran. But in the end, I enjoyed it very much. There, we students were rebellious. The school was above the aquarium and when they moved it, we students closed ourselves in. We didn’t want to go out all weekend. In the end, we were chased away by the police, who had to cut the chain that we used to block the door. It was very dramatic, « said the author with a smile.
Another important building in Koper that we stopped in front of was the Gravisi Palace, which houses the Koper Music School. Davorka sang in the mixed choir there for five years. During that time, she made some close and sincere friendships, which continue to this day. She also met some people who were important for her later work in the theatre. The palace is also important because her daughter is »the last descendant of the Gravisi«, boasted the proud mother of the future veterinarian Luna.
Through Tito Square and past Loggia, we fled to the Koper Theatre before the approaching storm. We stopped only long enough for Davorka to tell us that she loves the square for its beauty and that she had many interesting high school moments in the café. »I started my writing career in the theatre. It was the first time I finished writing the things I started, « she said laughing. By then, she already had drawers full of texts she had started and never finished. She founded a theatre group in her native Izola, wrote 13 original texts for it and put them on stage with over 200 young actors over a period of ten years.
The first raindrops, which we had been successfully fending off until then, prevented us from walking with Davorka to the coast and the pier, where Davorka spent many hours with a pencil and pen in her hand. »There I often got stuck between the rocks and wrote, « she said, adding an anecdote about how she stood up to high school girls who, not knowing she was listening, were slandering her. »They talked about throwing me into the sea. But I got up, walked onto the pier and, with my noble sense of drama, jumped into the sea myself. It was a really dramatic jump, « said the author, who just smiled meaningfully at the memory of climbing out of the sea that day.
Just before the clouds cleared and we had a chance to enjoy the heavy downpour, Davorka brought us to her »second home«, the Dom Koper Bookstore. She has been working there for 26 years and for the last 24 years she’s been running the store. Our walk ended here, but not our socialising. Davorka had prepared a sweet surprise for us at the end, and said »Alba likes raspberry cupcakes, and I made you a raspberry cake. « We then talked about her work for a while and ate some delicious cake. We found out how her novels were written, how she got the information for them, why one of Tolmin’s high school teachers was offended that Tolmin’s gymnasium was described as a tin of canned food in Strašilka, and many other interesting stories. She also introduced us to Šinjora Jablanka, who once a month reads fairy tales to young children in the bookshop. »Šinjorina Jablanka is my third alter ego«, Davorka told us, »the first is me, Davorka, the second is Davorka, the bookseller, and the third is Šinjorina Jablanka«. And all three alter egos (and maybe there is another one somewhere) presented themselves to us on this walk as smiling, gentle and full of positive energy. Not to mention the much-emphasised »noble sense of drama«, which made us laugh every time.
