Jakub Juhász: Human Geography

 – Slovakia

Born in 1990, he studied cultural studies at the Faculty of Arts at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra and the theory of interactive media at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno. He is pursuing experimental music and runs a small music publishing house called mappa editions. He made his literary debut in 2016 with the prose Novoročný výstup na Jaseninu (New Year's Ascent to Jasenina), which brought him among the top ten finalists for the Anasoft Litera award and earned him the Ján Johanides Award for young authors. After a successful debut, he leaves the flooded mountainous region and descends along the Ipeľ river to the plains, directly to the heart of his hometown, and in the book PS he explores the story Sándor Petőfi and his legend, which serves as a backdrop for something more intimate. PS is a tribute to the human geography of the South, as the author refers to the territory of his journeys. Whether it's the Banka Lásky in Banská Štiavnica, the picture gallery of the Halič Castle, the Hungarian National Park Hortobágy or "the esteemed Lučenec, the centre of the Novohrad region", each reader will find a corner of the world or a piece of cultural heritage in PS that they consider their own – even though, in Juhász's narration, certainty about one's roots is elusive. As the author himself writes: "What do I know about my roots? I still haven't figured it out."