Born: 8 April 1874, Croatia
Died: 21 September 1938
Country most active: Croatia
Also known as: Ivana Mažuranić
Croatian children’s writer Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times between 1931 and 1938. She started publishing stories and educational articles in the early 1900s, rising to fame with her 1913 book The Marvelous Adventures and Misadventures of Hlapić the Apprentice (also known as The Brave Adventures of Lapitch and Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića, followed by 1916’s Croatian Tales of Long Ago (Priče iz davnine). Her work has been translated into other languages and she has often been compared to Hans Christian Andersen. In 1997, The Marvelous Adventures and Misadventures of Hlapić the Apprentice was adapted into a film, Lapitch the Little Shoemaker, which was a commercial and critical success. She was the first woman accepted as a Corresponding Member into the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, in 1937.