all artists of Ars Poetica 2024
Daniel Hevier
Daniel Hevier (1955) is a Slovak poet from Bratislava. He graduated in aesthetics - Slovak language at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. For two years he was the literary editor of the Czechoslovak Radio in Bratislava. From 1982 to 1989 he was a professional freelance writer and later became editor-in-chief of the Mladé letá publishing house. In 1992, he founded his own publishing house, Hevi, where he published over a hundred books. He also co-founded Buvik, a publishing house focused on publishing books for young children.
He began by writing poetry for adults, and later turned to writing mainly for children and young people. He brings a spirit of lightness and playfulness, playful metaphor and wit to his poetry, and unlike all previous conventions, he is more enchanted by the city than the countryside and is very sensitive and spontaneous. He has a great sense of wordplay that is often a functional element in the construction of his tales. In 2009, he published his first novel, Kniha, ktorá sa stane /The Book That Happens/ (Kalligram). In addition to his own work, he also translates from English (Charles Bukowski and others), Czech (Vladislav Vančura, Miloš Macourek and others) and Russian. However, his own works have also been translated, e.g. his book Where Ice Cream Makers Go in Winter has been translated into German, Slovenian, Polish, Norwegian and Finnish, Nevyplazuj jazyk na leva /Don't stick your tongue out at the lion/ and Nám se už už nechce spať /We don't want to sleep anymore/ have been translated into Czech, and Aprílový Hugo /April Hugo/ into Polish.
Daniel Hevier is a versatile Slovak artist who is constantly moving with the times. In addition to poetry, he is a visual artist, interpreter of his own songs, author's theatre and a pioneer of creative writing in Slovakia, conducting numerous workshops and e-learning creative writing online. Most recently, he has also been involved in rap.