Marek Vadas

Marek Vadas (1971) is a writer of fiction for children and grown-ups and is known primarily for his books set against the backdrop of Africa, Liečiteľ (2006, published in English as The Healer in 2023), which won the Anasoft Litera Prize in 2007; Čierne na čiernom (2013, Black on Black) and Zlá štvrť (2019, A Bad Neighbourhood). Influenced by local story-telling traditions, his stories blend reality with dreams, and magic with absurd humour inflected with dark existential notes. The collection Šesť cudzincov (2021, Six Strangers), which marks Vadas’s return to Slovakia, is a fictionalised account of an anti-Roma pogrom in the 1930s that was buried under decades of silence, and addresses issues of unacknowledged guilt as well as individual and collective memory. Several of his books, including his latest short story collection Údolie (2025, The Valley), have been longlisted for the Anasoft Litera Prize, and his works have been translated into fifteen languages.