Due to the pandemic and closure of the borders between the V4 countries, the Spring Edition of this year’s Visegrad Literary Residences has been postponed to the middle of summer. From 15 July we have the pleasure to host four writers at Villa Decius: Pavel Klusák (Czech Republic), Mónika Rusvai (Hungary), Krzysztof Umiński (Poland) and Marcel Lacko (Slovakia).
We are very happy that, after a short break, the Łaski House, where our residents stay, is full of life again!
Pavel Klusák writes about music since 1989, broadcasts it on National Public Radio (Český rozhlas) and works as a festival curator. He has published three nonfiction books. Nowadays, he works on a critical biography of Karel Gott – the pop singer in the centre of entertainment in the former ČSSR during its totalitarian era. As a scriptwriter and director, Klusák works in the field of experimental and doc cinema. His directorial debut ‘Hudba Zdeněk Liška’ (‘Music Zdeněk Liška’) discovers a story of the soundtrack giant and electronic music pioneer. Pavel graduated FAMU (scriptwriting) and Faculty of Arts at Charles University (literature and Czech language).
Mónika Rusvai is a Hungarian writer of mythic fantasy. She is genuinely interested in European folklore and mythology, and in her works she attempts to reveal the modern-day relevance of old lore. Currently a PhD student at the University of Szeged, she is engaged in contemporary English language fantasy with a focus on the manifold representations of woodlands in fantastic texts. Her debut novel, ‘Tündöklő’ (2019), draws on Hungarian dragon lore and deals with facing historical trauma and the re-interpretation of cultural heritage. She is currently working on her second novel, a folktale-based underworld journey in a 20th century Central European setting.
Krzysztof Umiński was born in Warsaw in 1984. He co-wrote screenplays for feature films ‘Kamper’ and ‘A Coach’s Daughter’. His texts have been published in magazines such as ‘Bluszcz’, ‘Literatura na Świecie’ and ‘Nowe Książki’; he also regularly contributes to an online cultural magazine ‘Dwutygodnik’. He translated books by Albert Cohen, Mark Danner, Rohinton Mistry and Arundhati Roy, as well as some French graphic novels. Currently he is writing a non-fiction book about three female literary translators in the Communist Poland.
Marcel Lacko is a writer, filmmaker, creative flâneur and editor of cultural magazine ‘Enter’. He is the author of the novel ‘Marcel Lacko – Autobiography’ and the poetry collection ‘Looking For The Author’. His works were translated to English, Slovenian, Hungarian, Czech and Polish language. He directed the feature film ‘The Mirror’ and made the documentary ‘Marcel, Are You Here?’ He is the author of the play ‘Modern Love’.
