More than 60 Slovak books were translated abroad in 2024

In 2024, 64 books by Slovak authors were translated into 23 languages, including Ukrainian, as reported by the Slovak Literary Center.

The translated books include children’s books, award-winning prose and contemporary poetry, successful debuts as well as documentary novels.

The biggest quantity of Slovak books — 13 publications overall — were translated into Hungarian with works by Balla, Jana Bodnárová, Jana Juráňová, Viliam Klimáček, Richard Pupala, Pavol Rankov, Simona Smatana Čechová, Peter Šulej, and Pavol Vilikovský among them.

Nine books were translated into Czech, including “Letmý sneh” (“Fleeting Snow”) by Pavel Vilikovský, graphic novel “Gemer” by Daniel Majling, and “Pod slnkom Turina” (“Under the Turin Sun”) by EUPL laureate Ivana Dobraková.

Additionally, in 2024, eight Slovak books were translated into English, six into Serbian, and five into Polish.

Simona Smatana (Čechová) was the most translated author in 2024 with three of her children’s books “Včelár Jožko” (“Beekeeper Joe”), “František z kompostu” (“Frankie from the Compost Pile”), and “Hovnivál Hugo” (“Dung beetle Hugo”) published in Hungarian, and “Eliška nie je strašidlo” (“Elise Is Not a Monster”) — in Korean.

Pavol Rankov’s books have been published in three languages: “Na druhej strane” (“On the Other Hand”) was published in English by Terra Librorum, and “Klinika” (“The Clinic”) was translated into Polish by Książkowe Klimaty and Hungarian by Abacus. Nicol Hochholczerová also received three translations: her book “Táto izba sa nedá zjesť”  (“This Room Can’t Be Eaten”) was translated into Czech (Host), English (Parthian Books), and Ukrainian.

This book was translated into Ukrainian by linguist and writer Les Beley and published by Krok Publishing House.

“She is 12, he is 50. She is a student, he is her art teacher. The relationship that develops between them is difficult to get out of. You read the book in one evening, but you need much more time to digest it,” the annotation reads.

All Slovak literary works have been published abroad with the support of the Slovak Literature Abroad (SLOLIA) grant program operating since 1996 and supported by the Slovak Literary Center. The current members of the SLOLIA Commission are Mária Ridzoňová Ferenčuhová (poet, translator, film theorist, and Commission chair), Magdalena Bystrzak (literary scholar), Peter Juščák (writer), Aňa Ostrihoňová (publisher and translator), and Marta Součková (literary scholar).

RELATED: ‘A Brief History of a Long War of Ukraine with russia’ to debut in France ahead of Ukrainian edition

Main image: FreePik

Copy editing: Ben Angel