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Bernardína a iné ženy
Bernardína and other women
Event by: Mestské divadlo Žilina, ASPEKT
Location: Žilina Town Theatre, Horný Val 1, Žilina
Tickets: Get tickets
Talks & discussions
About event
At the beginning of November, the novelist Jana Cigániková will visit our Reading Room, whose name is known mostly to people from the circle of literary competitions, where she won numerous awards. During the talk, she will present her debut book, Bernardína and other women, which was published by ASPEKT.
She found drops of blood in the snow, they looked like flowers, she was not afraid at all. Skins and entrails were cooked in the net, it smelled everywhere, the remains of the intestines were left in the garden. The guys were drunk, their tongues and hands were wobbly. The meat already made her sick, but they offered her some more cooked. The holes in the blood vessels and veins were the worst on the heart.
Just don't let them cut themselves, said mom quietly and grinned. From this she understood that this is how it should be, that when killing oneself, one will drink, that there is no need to be angry about it. (excerpt from the book Bernardín and other women)
In her debut, Jana Cigániková ruthlessly and yet magically draws to the bottom of seemingly mundane stories about women, about different forms of motherhood, about families, youth and old age, or about intergenerational relationships. experiencing the characters indirectly exposes us to the test of self-reflection. Accepting any standardized concept of normality means not openly expressing what one thinks in secret, but is often ashamed to admit it to oneself. The author's writing is liberated in this, but her characters are not, because their feelings and thoughts remain hidden from others..." Lenka Šafranová, literary critic
"Through the characters' experiences, which are so personal we feel as if we should look away, the author touches on the common female experience. Her metaphor cuts to the living and shines under the skin." Nicol Hochholczerová, writer
Jana Cigániková comes from central Slovakia, from the village of Cinobaňa, currently lives with her husband and two children in Slovensky Grob. She studied Slovak and German at the Faculty of Humanities of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. He works in administration, currently on parental leave. The publication of the book debut was preceded by many years of writing and almost ten years of experience with various literary competitions. In them, she received numerous awards and support for her work from the expert jury. The most important ones include Literary Zvolen, Petržalské súzvuky Ferk Urbanek, Gorazd literary Prešov, Poeticka Ľubovňa. She has published several prose works in competition anthologies, as well as in the magazines AspektIN, Glosolália and Dotyky. As a reward for the first place, the most recent Literárny Zvolen 2024 competition brought her the mentoring of professor of Slovak literature, literary critic Marta Součková, who participated in the editorial work on the book. The illustrations for the prose were prepared by Júlia Stieranková (1985), a soulful artist and a long-time friend of the author.
She found drops of blood in the snow, they looked like flowers, she was not afraid at all. Skins and entrails were cooked in the net, it smelled everywhere, the remains of the intestines were left in the garden. The guys were drunk, their tongues and hands were wobbly. The meat already made her sick, but they offered her some more cooked. The holes in the blood vessels and veins were the worst on the heart.
Just don't let them cut themselves, said mom quietly and grinned. From this she understood that this is how it should be, that when killing oneself, one will drink, that there is no need to be angry about it. (excerpt from the book Bernardín and other women)
In her debut, Jana Cigániková ruthlessly and yet magically draws to the bottom of seemingly mundane stories about women, about different forms of motherhood, about families, youth and old age, or about intergenerational relationships. experiencing the characters indirectly exposes us to the test of self-reflection. Accepting any standardized concept of normality means not openly expressing what one thinks in secret, but is often ashamed to admit it to oneself. The author's writing is liberated in this, but her characters are not, because their feelings and thoughts remain hidden from others..." Lenka Šafranová, literary critic
"Through the characters' experiences, which are so personal we feel as if we should look away, the author touches on the common female experience. Her metaphor cuts to the living and shines under the skin." Nicol Hochholczerová, writer
Jana Cigániková comes from central Slovakia, from the village of Cinobaňa, currently lives with her husband and two children in Slovensky Grob. She studied Slovak and German at the Faculty of Humanities of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. He works in administration, currently on parental leave. The publication of the book debut was preceded by many years of writing and almost ten years of experience with various literary competitions. In them, she received numerous awards and support for her work from the expert jury. The most important ones include Literary Zvolen, Petržalské súzvuky Ferk Urbanek, Gorazd literary Prešov, Poeticka Ľubovňa. She has published several prose works in competition anthologies, as well as in the magazines AspektIN, Glosolália and Dotyky. As a reward for the first place, the most recent Literárny Zvolen 2024 competition brought her the mentoring of professor of Slovak literature, literary critic Marta Součková, who participated in the editorial work on the book. The illustrations for the prose were prepared by Júlia Stieranková (1985), a soulful artist and a long-time friend of the author.