Vida Brest

{{Short description|Yugoslav Slovene-language poet and writer}}

{{Expand Slovene|topic=bio|date=September 2021}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Vida Brest

| image =

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| birth_name = Majda Peterlin

| birth_date = {{birth date|1925|07|21|df=y}}

| birth_place = Šentrupert, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now in Slovenia)

| death_date = {{death date and age|1985|11|10|1925|07|21|df=y}}

| death_place = Golnik, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia)

| occupation = {{flatlist|

• Poet
• writer
• journalist
• teacher
• children's writer}}

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| notableworks = Majhen človek na veliki poti, Tiho tiho srce

| awards = {{Awards|Levstik Award|1984|for Majhen človek na veliki poti}}

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Vida Brest (true name Majda Peterlin) (21 July 1925 – 10 November 1985) was a Yugoslav Slovene-language poet, writer, journalist, and teacher, best known for her juvenile fiction, often based on her own experiences as a young Partisan during the Second World War.[http://www.sentrupert.si/Kultura/Rasto%C4%8Daknjiga/VidaBrestMajdaPeterlin/tabid/164/Default.aspx Šentrupert municipal site] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202143301/http://www.sentrupert.si/Kultura/Rasto%C4%8Daknjiga/VidaBrestMajdaPeterlin/tabid/164/Default.aspx |date=2 February 2014 }}

Brest was born in Šentrupert in Lower Carniola in 1925.{{cite book |author=Stanko Janež |editor = Živan Milisavac |date=1971 |title=Jugoslovenski književni leksikon |trans-title=Yugoslav Literary Lexicon |publisher=Matica srpska |language=sh |location= Novi Sad (SAP Vojvodina, SR Serbia) |page=51 }} At the age of 17 she joined the resistance movement and after the end of the Second World War became a journalist and teacher. She later devoted herself to writing, her main inspiration being her own experiences during the war, but also wrote fairy tales and children's stories. From a very early age she also wrote poetry, with her first poems being published by the Partisan press during the war. A selection of her best poems was published posthumously in 1995, selected and edited by Ivan Minatti.

She won the Levstik Award in 1984 for her book of stories from the resistance entitled Majhen človek na veliki poti (A Small Man on a Big Road).{{Cite web |url=http://www.mladinska.com/knjige/knjizne_nagrade/levstikove__nagrade |title=The Levstik Award on the Mladinska Knjiga Publishing House site |access-date=22 March 2012 |archive-date=26 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826214407/http://www.mladinska.com/knjige/knjizne_nagrade/levstikove__nagrade |url-status=dead }}