Jana Bodnárová

 – Slovakia

Born in 1950 in Jakubovany, she studied art history and worked for over ten years as a preservationist in the conservation of art-historical monuments. Since the beginning of 1990s, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary activities. She is the author of various prose works, literature for children, radio plays and television scripts. She was awarded the Ivan Krasko Prize for prose Affair of Reason (Aféra rozumu, 1990). With her play The Course of Oriental Dancing (Kurz orientálneho tanca) she won the Drama 2004 competition. In 2008, her autobiographical prose Almost Invisible (Takmer neviditeľná) was published, nominated for the Anasoft Litera Award in 2009. in 2016, she released the novel Necklace/Choker (Literary Academy Award), in 2018, the minimalistic collection of prose fragments NOCturná (nominated for Anasoft Litera Award 2019), and in 2019, "a small novel" Skin (Koža, nominated for Anasoft Litera Award 2020). Jana Bodnárová's work is characterized by poetics reflecting motifs and techniques inspired by visual arts. Her latest book, the poetry collection You Are Space Dust (Vesmírny prach si, 2021), also exhibits an artistic, almost surreal quality. Her new book Patchwork in White (Patchwork v bielej) is nominated for the Anasoft Litera Award.