Mario Kolar is a literary critic and university professor. He was born in 1981 in Koprivnica. He completed primary school in Molve and gymnasium in Đurđevac. In 2008 he graduated in Croatian language and literature, Slavic languages and literatures, and library science at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, where he earned a PhD in philology (theory and history of literature) in 2013.
From 2008 to 2018, he worked as a Croatian language teacher and librarian in several schools and other institutions. Since 2018, he has been teaching courses in modern and contemporary Croatian literature at the Department of Croatian Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka.
He has published five scholarly books, five illustrated biographies of Croatian writers, and around one hundred studies, essays, and critical reviews. He has edited selected works of several Croatian writers and is a (co-)editor of several literary and svholary books. He is the principal investigator of the research projects “Social Criticism in the Contemporary Croatian Novels” (funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, 2026–2029) and “Croatian and Anglophone Crime Fiction: Text, Context, Translation” (funded by NextGenerationEU, 2025–2029). He has undertaken professional training abroad and has published papers and delivered presentations at international academic conferences (Argentina, Republic of Korea, Spain, Italy, Poland, Austria,etc.). He is a member of the editorial boards of the scholarly journals “Fluminensia” and “Podravina”, and previously served on the editorial boards of the literary journals “Artikulacije” and “Republika”.
As a student, he received the Rector’s Award of the University of Zagreb, and he is also the recipient of the “Julije Benešić” Award for literary criticism. In 2024, he was elected an associate member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Bibliography
Scholarly books:
- Nuspojave čitanja [Side Effects of Reading], Koprivnica, 2014.
- Između tradicije i subverzije: časopis Kaj i kajkavska postmoderna [Between Tradition and Subversion: Kaj Magazine and Kajkavian Postmodernism], Zagreb, 2015.
- Izazovi čitanja: rasprave i ogledi iz novije hrvatske književnosti [Challenges of Reading: Studies and Essays on Modern Croatian Literature], Samobor, 2018.
- Teksture i strukture: rasprave i ogledi iz novije hrvatske književnosti [Textures and Structures: Studies and Essays on Modern Croatian Literature], Zagreb, 2023.
- Glas i jeka: odjeci suvremene hrvatske književnosti [Voice and Echo: Echoes of Contemporary Croatian Literature], Koprivnica, 2023.
Popular books:
- Tin: ilustrirana biografija Tina Ujevića [Tin: Ilustrated Biography of Tin Ujević], Samobor, 2023. (illustrated by Tomislav Zagoda)
- Fran: ilustrirana biografija Frana Galovića [Fran: Ilustrated Biography of Fran Galović], Samobor, 2023. (illustrated by Igor Lepčin)
- Pisac sukobljenih svjetova: ilustrirana biografija Ive Andrića [Writer of Conflicting Worlds: An Illustrated Biography of Ivo Andrić], Samobor, 2024. (illustrated by Tomislav Zagoda)
- Pisac smiješnog i ozbiljnog: ilustrirana biografija Slavka Kolara [Writer of the Comic and the Serious: An Illustrated Biography of Slavko Kolar], Samobor, 2024. (illustrated by Mihael Klanjčić)
- „Pisac pobune i krika: ilustrirana biografija Janka Polića Kamova“ [Writer of Rebellion and the Scream: An Illustrated Biography of Janko Polić Kamov], Samobor, Opus Gradna, 2025. (illustrated by Tomislav Zagoda)
Editor:
- Dubravko Ivančan: Izabrana djela [Selected works], Koprivnica, 2017.
- Fran Galović: Dok večer se zmrači: izbor iz djela [Until the Evening Gets Dark: Selected Works], Koprivnica, 2020.
- Divan užas: izabrani radovi o Slavku Kolaru (1917. – 2021.) [Wonderful Horror: Selected Works about Slavko Kolar (1917 – 2021)], Čazma, 2021.
- Slavko Kolar: Izabrana djela [Selected works], Zagreb, 2023.
- Ivan Golub: Knjiga poučaka [Lesson book], Koprivnica, 2024.
