Michal Hvorecký (1976) is a writer, journalist, and translator who works at the Goethe Institute in Bratislava. He studied aesthetics at the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra. In 1998 he made his literary debut with the book Silný pocit čistoty (A Strong Sense of Cleanliness), and since then he has written a number of successful collections of short stories and novels. His book Trol (Troll, 2017) was published in several languages, and in Germany it became one of the book events of 2018. His works have been translated into German, Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Serbian, Italian, and English. Michal Hvorecký is also a regular commentator of current events; writes about Slovakia for German newspapers and magazines; and was the first host of LIT_CAST Slowakei, a podcast about Slovak literature in German, which is available via the Literary Information Center website.