4-3-2-1 (17th Year) — Autumn

September 20, 2023, 5pm
Beáta Balogová

Beáta Balogová is a writer and the editor-in-chief at SME daily. Before, she worked as the editor-in-chief at The Slovak Spectator, a weekly print published in English. She graduated from the Columbia University in New York, USA where she studied journalism in 2006 and 2007. She received the Fulbright Scholarship which allowed her to study at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA in 1994 and 1995. Beáta was awarded the European Press Prize Opinion award for 2020. She is a member of the executive board of the International Press Institute. Last year, she published her family-focused novel titled Kornélie. In 2019, she published Kniha plná ľudí [A Book Full of People] and in 2011, O zmysle života [On the Meaning of Life] and others.¹

October 25, 2023, 5pm
Katarína Kucbelová 

Katarína Kucbelová is an unestablished Slovak poet. Before her novel Čepiec [Bonnet] ](Slovart 2019), which is her prosaic debut, she published four collections of poems: Duály [Duals] (Drewo a srd 2019), Šport [Sport] (Ars Poetica 2006), Malé veľké mesto [Little Big Town] (Ars poetica 2008) and Vie, čo urobí [Knowing What to Do] (Artforum 2013). Her latest book got her into the top ten of the Anasoft litera award and she won the readers’ award of the Book of the Year held by Pravda daily. Her poems have been translated into dozens of languages and published in various international anthologies. The book Vie, čo urobí has been translated into Ukrainian and the book of poems titled Malé veľké mesto into Spanish. In the spring of 2020, Vlna/Drewo a srd published a second edition of the first three books. She works as a cultural manager and previously co-founded the Anasoft litera award which she also headed until 2012. She was born in Banská Bystrica and has been living in Bratislava since her studies at the Academy of Performing Arts. Together with her husband, they are raising one daughter.²

November 21, 2023, 5pm
Marek Vadas

He graduated in aesthetics and Slovak language and literature from the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Bratislava and underwent thirteen trips to Cameroon where he works as the king’s advisor in a small kingdom of Nyenjei. He debuted in 1994 with his collection of short stories titled Malý román [Little Novel] (Literary Fund Award). In 2003, he published a collection of short stories titled Prečo sa smrtka smeje [Why Is the Grim Reaper Grinning]. His Rozprávky z čiernej Afriky [Fairytales of Black Africa] (2005) received the Bibiana Award for the best book for children. He is a laureate of the Anasoft litera award for his collection of short stories titled Liečiteľ [Healer] (2006). In 2013, another collection of short stories is published called Čierne na čiernom [Black on Black], in 2016, a children’s book titled Útek [Escape], in 2018, a book called Zlá štvrť [Bad Neighbourhood] which got into the top ten of the Anasoft litera award in 2019. His signature language is influenced by African narrative styles which tend to blend reality and fantasy, magic and black humour, absurdity and dark existential tones. In 2021, he published Šesť cudzincov [Six Strangers], a book contemplating anti-Roma pogrom in a small town in western Slovakia in 1928, which also got him nominated for the Anasoft litera award.³