Oľga Feldeková, a Slovak novelist, journalist, screenwriter and playwright, died at the age of 82 on Saturday. This was confirmed for TASR by her son Martin and Anna Ölvecká, a family friend of the Feldek family. The writer and former diplomat Jozef Banáš (77) also remembered her colleague, who devoted a long status.
“The end of Oľga’s season. Dear Olinka, you have seen the harvest. I also kind of feel like I’m one of the fruits that ripened thanks to you. You were at my late literary seeding, you were the first to publish my short stories Busta, Kirchhoff’s Law, Extraordinary Express in the New Word of Young People. She also included it in the anthology of young Slovak short stories,” Banáš wrote and continued.
“Then she wrote: ‘I was probably the first to discover that Jozef Banáš is a talented writer. As a dramaturgist at Koliba, I took on his film short story Beginning of the season. However, few people know that the film was originally supposed to be called The End of the Season, but the Central Committee of the KSS intervened, which saw a kind of pessimistic anti-state allusion in that title. So we renamed it to the beginning of the season, the new name already sounded more optimistic to the authorities, it could go to cinemas,'” he added.
According to him, not only in the case of their film, but whenever they debated about literature or the world, they started something, but did not think about the end at the time, they wanted to look ahead. It didn’t occur to them that somewhere ahead there was also the end of the law. To her, to Banás, to everyone.
“My dear literary mother, all that remains is to thank you. For all your encouraging words, for the advice and help you gave me during my work, for your eternal optimism, for the joy you gave to all of us. So your season is over, you are free. Thank you for everything. With sadness and hope, Jožo,” he concluded.
Oľga Feldeková was born on March 28, 1943 in Martina, grew up on upper Orava, in Tvrdošín. After graduating from high school in Trstena (1960), she continued her university studies, in the meantime (1960 – 1961) she worked as a worker at Tesla Orava in Nižná nad Oravou.
After completing her studies in journalism at the Comenius University’s Faculty of Arts (1967), she worked as a freelancer (in the meantime she gave birth to and raised five children). She worked externally as the editor of New Youth Word (1978 – 1982), compiled two anthologies of young Slovak prose from the contributions of talented authors (There will be quatrefoils for dinner, Doska na koléchá).
After the demise of New Word of Youth, she became a dramaturg of Slovak film production (1982 – 1990), since 1990 she has been freelancing again. Her book debut, Moving in the Place, was published by the Smena publishing house in 1976, and another book of short stories, Girl and Happiness (1979), was also published by the same publishing house. The third cycle of short stories Neodoslané listy was originally part of the book Svet je ij inde (Cyrano, 1999), all three cycles were completely published under the title Short Stories (Ex tempore, 2003), enriched with the short story When men celebrate.
She published short prose and feuilletons in two books: Sometimes I sleep in glasses so that I can see my dreams better (Columbus, 2005) and Tajomstvo Sloveniek (2006). For the seventieth birthday of her husband, Slovak poet, novelist, playwright and translator Ľubomír Feldek, she prepared a selection from his poetry Seventy on Love (Ikar, 2006), which was accompanied by her prose text. In 2013, her novel While I’m Happy was published.
