Erik Jakub Groch: A clay notebook

 – Slovakia

Erik Jakub Groch was born in 1957 in Košice. In his hometown, he was active in artistic and intellectual underground groups that published samizdat literary anthologies, organized philosophical lectures, and in November 1989, represented the Civic Forum in Košice. In the same year, Groch officially debuted with his poetry collection Súkromné hodiny smútku (Private Hours of Mourning; Ivan Krasko Award), originally published as samizdat in 1985. He gradually published other poetry collections, as well as books for children Tuláčik and Klára, Píšťalkár (Whistler) and Ábé, Aha a spol.: rozprávky pre indigové deti (Ábé, Aha and co.: Fairy Tales for Indigo Children). The Council of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia awarded him the Fra Angelika award in 2020. In 2022, he received the Dominik Tatarka award for his poetry collection viety (sentences). Last year, Modrý Peter publishing house released a reissue of his collections Em and Infinity.