The award is named after the Slovene playwright and doctor Slavko Grum (1901–1949), the author of the play An Event in the Town of Goga [Dogodek v mestu Gogi] (published 1930), dealing with crucial aspects of Slovene identity. Grum's play has strongly marked the development of Slovene playwriting.
On the occasion of the 40th Week of Slovenian Drama, the Prešeren Theatre Kranj and the Zelolepo Publishing House launched a books series comprised of all the plays awarded with the Grum Award. The series will include 14 collections of original texts, which will also include translations of the plays in the English language. The most recent edition includes texts by the the 2009 Grum Award recipients, playwrights and dramaturgs Simona Semenič and Žanina Mirčevska and their plays 5boys.si [5fantkov.si] and The End of the Atlas [Konec atlasa] respectively.