Simo Mraović was born in Kutina in 1966. He spent his childhood in Jastrebarsko and the rest of his life in Zagreb, where he studied philosophy, Russian language and literature and the Croatian language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities. He freelanced for various Zagreb newspapers, wrote short scripts for television talk-shows and was the editor of the cultural section at Republika daily. From year 2000 until his death, he hosted sunday talk-show called Coffe&Cakes at the Bogdan Ogrizović library in Zagreb. He was a member of the Swedish PEN, as well as of the Society of Croatian Writers and of the Croatian Society of Writers.
Mraović’s poetic opus has a significant place in the contemporary Croatian poetry. His first collection Sezona otrova (Season of Poison) came out when he was only twenty. The next collection, Rimljanima nedostaje milosti (Romans Lack Mercy), was published in 1990 and in 1994 he published another one entitled Na zemlji je sjena (There is a Shadow on the Ground). His 1997 collection of poetry Između usana (Between lips) 1997 was markedly narrative, which holds particularly true for the poems from the Zagrebamsterdam cycle. Still, and in spite of such characteristics, he only wrote poetry until the novel Konstantin Bogobojazni (God-fearing Constantine), published in 2001. His most popular poetry collection was Laku noć, Garbo, (Good night, Garbo), from 2001. Ukrajinske bajke (Ukrainian fairy tales), published by the Faculty of Humanities on the occasion of Croatia’s and Ukraine’s mutual recognition, remains less familiar to the reading public. In 2004 he published another book of poetry entitled Gmund, two years later wrote Nula Nula (Nil Nil), a book of poetry, and in 2007 published a book of essays Bajke za plažu (Fairy tales for the Beach).
His novel Konstantin Bogobojazni and poetry collection Gmund were translated into Ukrainian and Bulgarian and parts of his books were translated into Slovenian, Polish, Hungarian, Italian and German. He also translated English poetry. His literary style and opus could be described as witty and lucid and his popular blog turned him into something of a media personality. He died in Zagreb in 2008.