Franci Zagoričnik was born on 16 November 1933, in Duga Resa. He lived in Kranj where he also attended primary school and the junior high school. For 15 years he worked as a labourer in Tekstilindus Kranj. He started his literary career in the 1960s and saw the publication of numerous works during his lifetime. A renowned poet, fiction writer, literary and art reviewer, essayist, journalist, translator, publisher, he was also cultural events' organizer. He translated mainly from Croatian and Serbian and organized visual and concrete poetry exhibitions in Slovenia, as well as in other parts of former Yugoslavia. A Westeast I- II editor, he was awarded the Praemium Clocostricum Prize in Belgrade in 1979 and in 1985 the Gorenjska Prešeren Prize in Križe near Kranj.

He was a member of the Society of Slovenian Poets and Writers, the Society of the Primorje Writers, the Society of Slovenian Translators, the Society of Croatian Writers and Poets, and the Society of Vojvodina Literary Authors.
In 1965, he was the originator of Slovenian visual and concrete poetry and in 1978 he founded Westeast, an international avant-garde association. He also collaborated with Nejč Slapar and Živko Kladnik in the foundation of an artistic group Signum in Kranj. During the years 1979-1980 the group gave several performances in Kranj, Rijeka,Venice, and Piran. As Westeast journal editor, he managed to publish the works of numerous Slovenian and foreign authors. He is known for his comprehensive mail art collection.

He was an editor of the following newspapers, literary reviews and journals: Perspectives (Perspektive), Problems (Problemi), Tribune (Tribuna), A Sickle (Srp), Visual Words (Likovne besede)- all published in Ljubljana, New Atlantis (Nova Atlantida, Kranj), Dialogues (Dialogi, Maribor), Rock (Rok, Belgrade), A Ticket (Ulaznica, Zrenjanin), Pesmos (Zrenjanin), Dis's Herald (Disov glasnik, Čačak), Westeast I-IX. He was also an editor of all Westeast journals and publications.

In 1981, he edited Croatian avant-garde poetry anthology He Was Killed with the Bricks (Ubili so ga z opekami) and in 1985 an anthology of contemporary poetry for children  A Magical Flower (Roža čudotvorna), which he also translated. His dramatized version of Richard Bach's book Jonathan Livingston Seagull was performed by The Across the Street Theatre (Gledališče žez cesto) and in 1987 won second prize at the BRAMS festival in Belgrade. The show was premiered at the Workers’ House (Delavski Dom) in Kranj.

At the end of the 80s he took up publishing with Ory Pála's Fondue collection (Fondi Orya Pála) and later established The Gorenjska Publishing House (Gorenjska Založniška Družba, G.O.Z.D). In the years of 1993/ 97, he published sixteen issues of New Atlantis, the Gorenjska literary and art review. His collection Bela, including the works of five authors (Janez Sagadin, Jožek Štucin, Sanja Pregl, Ksenija Zmagaj, Franci Zagoričnik), was his last collection to be published. He died on 18 June 1997, at Golnik (Slovenia).

—Miloš Bašin