Oľga Feldeková, a Slovak novelist, journalist, screenwriter and playwright, died at the age of 82 on Saturday. In this context, TASR presents a profile Oľgy Feldekova, who devoted herself to prose, was a screenwriter, journalist, but also a socio-political glossator with a special sense of humor. Her husband was the poet, novelist, playwright and translator Ľubomír Feldek.
In 2023, on the occasion of her 80th birthday, she stated for TASR in relation to her husband: “He stocked me with good books. He didn’t let me read stupid books and watch stupid movies or shows so I wouldn’t spoil my taste. My whole family, my father, mother, brother, later husband and children have and had a great sense of humor. Serious things happened in my life, and I was grateful to fate when there was something to laugh about.”
Oľga Feldeková, née Lukáčiová, was born on March 28, 1943 in Martin. She grew up in Tvrdošín on Orava. She graduated from the eleven-year high school in Trstena and after graduation she worked for two years as a worker at Tesla Orava in Nižna. In 1967, she graduated in journalism at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Comenius University in Bratislava. She started writing for children during her university studies. Her first major work was the prose First Loves (1967), which was published as a sequel in Pionierske noviny. She and her husband wrote the play Today we play in a golden frame in 1974.
In the years 1978 – 1982, she worked externally as an editor of the New Word of Youth, while compiling two anthologies of young Slovak prose from the contributions of talented authors – There will be four-leaf clovers for dinner and Doska na kolélách. After the demise of New Word of Youth, she became a dramaturg of Slovak film production (1982 – 1990) and since 1990 she has been freelancing again. She debuted as a children’s author in 1975 with the book Tales for a Little Girl. A year later, she published the prose “Moving in Place”, and in 1979 another collection of short stories, Girl and Happiness, was published. Her best-known literary work is the novel Squirrel (1985), with which she continued the best traditions of Slovak lyrical prose.
She and her husband also wrote a book of feuilletons The world is elsewhere (1998). The third cycle of short stories Neodoslané listy was originally part of the feuilletons The World is Elsewhere (1999) and all three cycles were completely published under the title Short Stories (2003), enriched with the short story When Men Jubilate.
She published short prose and feuilletons in two books: Sometimes I sleep in glasses so that I can see my dreams better (2005) and Tajomstvo Sloveniek (2006). For her husband’s seventieth birthday, she prepared a selection from his poetry Seventy About Love (2006), which was accompanied by her prose text. In 2013, she published the novel While I’m Happy. On the occasion of Feldek’s 75th birthday, her book Minútové romány (2018) was published, in which she returned to the experiences of her youth.
Oľga Feldeková also worked on translations from Polish. She was also the godmother of the children’s reading marathon event, Read on. In 2021, she made her dramaturgical debut at the PO Hviezdoslav Theater (DPOH) in Bratislava in the Anómia 21 project with the play One Hundred Dolls. She performed in various entertainment-humorous as well as socio-political shows, for example Ai múdry schybí, Sedem, Nikto nie je perfect, Incognito or Silná kóstva.
