Alena Mornštajnová

– Czechia

Mornštajnová was born in Valašské Meziříčí in 1963 and studied English and Czech at the University of Ostrava. She has taught English and translated, and written five novels (Slepá mapa | The Blind Map, 2013; Hotýlek | The Tiny Hotel, 2015; Hana, 2017; Tiché roky | Silent Years, 2019; Listopád | November Fall, 2021) and a children’s book Strašidýlko Stráša (Buggie the Bugbear, 2018). She belongs amongst the most successful Czech women writers post 1989. “Books have always been a part of my life: to invent stories and pen them in books has always been my desire since childhood. But life never runs to our plan, so I fulfilled my wish much later. However, I can see in retrospect that everything I have ever done has somehow led my way to my current writing,” she says.