Austrian Empress Maria Theresa's educational reforms of the 18th century produced a reading public for the eloquent Romantic poet France Prešeren, Slovene literature's pater patriae. Novels followed in the late 1800s. The luminaries of the Modern school, the novelist Ivan Cankar and the poet Oton Zupancic, were the first of a long list of politically influential writers. Among interwar figures were the harshly realistic novelist Prezihov Voranc and the avant-gardist Srecko Kosovel. Poet Edvard Kocbek stood out during and after World War II; an antifascist, he suffered at the hands of ex-comrades. Postwar literary celebrities include Ciril Zlobec, Niko Grafenauer, and Drago Jancar.

Music and the visual arts also have a valuable heritage. Slovenes are particularly proud of the Renaissance composer Jakob Petelin Gallus-Carniolus, known in the German-speaking world as Jacob Handl. Theater and the media are remarkably creative. An valuable, internationally active cultural group is the century-old Slovene Mother Bee