Dana Podracká

Dana Podracká (1954), poet, essayist and children’s books writer. She made her debut with the collection of poems The Moon Mistress (1981), followed by nine collections, the most recent being Persona and Morpheus – diptych (2007), Dome – the author’s selection (2008) and Slovak Elegies (2011). She has written four books for children and eight books of essays, e. g. Mythology of Privacy (1995), The Slovak Taboo (2000), Mrs. Cogito. The Myth of Holism (2005) and Hysteria Siberiana (2009).

Dana Podracká’s poems explore the interior landscape of suffering; they work to establish a counterweight to the emptiness and loneliness of markets, power and money. Full of startling images and sudden transitions, her poems act as prayers in a world where plunder, cruelty and indifference threaten to rule unchallenged. Podracká’s voice is an essential witness to atrocities committed systematically by power elites in the heart of Europe.

(Robert Welch)