According to the Slovenian Writers' Association, which will confer the award for the 18th time, Petrič has all the key qualities of a successful young literary critic.

Her key virtues result from her in-debt insight into literature that can only come from a critic who is not only a lone reader but also an active creator in familiarising the readers with literary works, the jury said.

If literary criticism is an indispensable part of literature, which calls for reflection, then Tanja Petrič is an indispensable part of contemporary Slovenian literary criticism, the three member jury, including last year's award winner Aljoša Harlamov, said.

Petrič said ahead of the ceremony that she had been observing a growing trend of unprofessional criticism over the past years, especially spreading on the internet.

"In terms of quality, the internet allows for unprofessional and often sensational reviews that have nothing to do with an insightful and reasonable criticism," she explained.

At the same time, she pointed to the low wages of literary critics that often have no other choice but to find another day job to get by. "At the moment, days and often even weeks of a critic's work is valued EUR 40-150 gross."

Petrič, a literary critic, translator and editor, has graduated from comparative literature, literary theory and German language and literature at the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts. She has been an active literary critic since 2002, when her first reviews were published in daily Večer.

The Stritar Prize is named after author Josip Stritar (1836-1923), who laid the foundations of the Slovenian literary criticism.

It has been conferred as part of the Pranger festival since 2013.