Aleksander Zorn was born in 1947 in Maribor, but has lived in Ljubljana since 1948, where he graduated in world literature and literary theory from the Faculty of Arts in 1973. During his studies he was already actively participating in the student movement, and acting on the editorial boards of various magazines. From 1967 to 1969 he co-edited Mlada Pota, a literary supplement of the weekly Mladina. In 1969 and 1970 he was a member of Radio Student’s founding team and its first cultural editor; in 1970 he edited Tribuna; in 1971 and 1972 he was co-founder and the first president of the student’s cultural centre ŠKUC; in 1972 he co-edited Problemi, and has been a member of the Slovenian Writers’ Association since 1981.

He started his professional career in 1974 as freelance dramaturg for the Glej experimental theatre and continued as dramaturg for the Viba Film Studio in Ljubljana from 1977 to 1981. During the following seven years, when he worked as a freelance writer, he was first secretary and member of the founding editorial board of Nova Revija (since 1982), worked as dramaturg on several theatre performances, and wrote articles for professional and literary magazines and newspapers. In 1987 he was employed as editor of the Slovene literature division at the Mladinska Knjiga publishing house in Ljubljana.

For many years, as a critic, he has been actively following developments in Slovene literature. He has published reviews and articles in Tribuna, Ljubljanski Dnevnik, Problemi, Nova Revija, on Radio Student and Radio Slovenia. From 1979 to 1986 he wrote Branje, a regular column in Naši Razgledi. Some of his reviews are collected in the book Kritika Branja (The Critique of Reading, MK 1988). Many of his literary studies of Slovene writers, and essays on literary genre and phenomena are also published in the book Nacionalni junaki, narcisi in stvaritelji (National Heroes, Narcissists and Creators, MKZ 1999).

Over the last 18 years, when he worked as an editor of Mladinska Knjiga, he has selected and edited over 250 books by Slovene poets, writers, playwrights, memoirists and sociologists, as well as some lexical works and works pertaining to the fine arts.

He took part in the foundation of the Slovenian World Congress, co-signed and co-initiated several social actions, petitions and Nova Revija editions, co-founded the Josip Jurčič Fund for journalist awards, and presided over the Cultural Forum which from 1995 to 1999 organised resounding public debates on culture.

During the last ten years, Zorn has published his articles in Nova Revija, Ampak and Mag, and has also contributed several feature articles and essays on Slovene society during the time of transition, which are soon to be published in book form.

On 3 December 2004 the Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed him State Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office.