Evening full of freshness, youth and the written word

Marek Zakopčan from Banska Bistrica, a young Slovak novelist, the author of five novels, a high school teacher and primarily "a fan of humor in all its forms" (as he describes himself), was born on June 23rd 1986 in Banska Bistrica. He studied at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Matej Bel in Banska Bistrica and is now employed as a teacher at a high school.

When he was 21, he published his first novel "Miesto tieňov" which is actually a script of a crime show broadcasted in Slovakia. In the same year, that is 2008, he published the book "Zradná vášeň" and later his most famous book, "Nevinni zmätkári", a comedy for young people. In May this year he published his novel "The Flame hrechu." He is currently writing two comedies, and one of them is a sequel to "Nevinni zmätkári."

During the literary evening it was talked about the modern Slovak creations, the situation in the publishing industry as well as relationships between young writers. The author explained to the audience what is needed for a young person to become successful, if one has nothing but a talent and dreams. He talked about the common mistakes that young writers make, as well as about some interesting things that occur while some event is created on the paper. On the same occasion he presented his books and revealed his current plans.

The end of the evening was followed by a question to what level people in Slovakia are informed about the literary work of Vojvodina’s Slovaks. M. Zakopčan said that the older writers have heard of some of our writers, and that the students of the Slovak Language and Literature have knowledge about professor Mihal Harpanja, but also that young authors and readers are not informed about the phenomenon of foreign Slovak literature. As a professor, he promised that he would try to make his students acquainted with this issue.

The event was introduced by the Director of CIVS Milina Sklabinski, who revealed how the cooperation between this institution and Marek Zakopčan happened. The end of the evening was followed by a discussion.
One of Marek’s readers said that his novel should be read instead of breakfast, that way, he says, he would be filled with energy for entire day. We hope that this evening, July 18th, the Cultural Institute shared some youthful energy with the audience, and motivated young artists of Vojvodina’s Slovaks to create new literary works.