Dušan DUŠEK (1946)
Poet, novelist, screenwriter, university teacher, Honorary Citizen of the Town of Piešťany
He has devoted his time and efforts to literature since 1979. He is the author of books for children and young people (Pištáčik, Pištáčik sa žení, Babka na rebríku/ “Pištáčik, Pištáčik Gets Married“, “Grandma on a Ladder“), prose for adults (Kufor na sny, Pešo do neba, Slamienka, Melón sa vždy smeje, Počúvať je zadarmo/“A Suitcase for Dreams”, “Walking to Heaven“, “Immortelle”, “A Melon is Always Laughing”, “Listening is Free“), collections of poetry (Dúšky, Príbeh bez príbehu/ “Souls“, “A Story with a Story“), radio plays (Pretože aj napriek tomu, Strojček na spomienky/“That’s Why Even Though“, “Memory Machine“), as well as scripts for films and television (Ružové sny, Ja milujem, ty miluješ, Krajinka/ ”Pink Dreams“, “I Love, You Love“, “Landscape“). He has received several awards for his work - Cena Trojruža (the Triple Rose Award) 1992 for his children’s books, Cena Rudolfa Slobodu (the Rudolf Sloboda Award) 2000 for the film “Krajinka“ (Landscape), Cena Dominika Tatarku (the Dominik Tatarka Award) 2000 for the book Pešo do neba (“Walking to Heaven”), Krištáľové krídlo (the Crystal Wing) 2002 in the category Fiction and Literature and, most recently, cena Slnko v sieti (the Award Sun in a Net) 2014 for his outstanding contribution to Slovak cinematography. Currently, he is working as a teacher at the Film and Television Faculty at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He spent his childhood in Piešťany, where he always loves to return, both personally and in his memories, as well as in one of his novels entitled Zima na ruky (“Cold Hands“).
Dušan Dušek and Piešťany
“Saint-Exupéry said that we all come from the country of our childhood. And my childhood is really Piešťany. I went to school in this town until I was fourteen years old and lived here another year and a half until we moved to Bratislava. Experiences from childhood are so beautiful because they always bring new, previously unknown things, everything is being experienced for the first time, the first time one goes to school, falls in love, goes on a trip... The best remains in our memories and from these we are able to live. These childhood experiences become more beautiful over time, which is why people continue to recall them. This is also the same reason why I continuously return to Piešťany and to specific people, experiences, and history. „
„...however, I have stopped writing about childhood, it has appeared in many of my works because its definition is quite simple – the paradise that we have in our lives is precisely childhood. There are moments, for example, when I remember the euphoria I experienced from the light in Piešťany’s Spa Park. I can see it so clearly, how I ride my bike and notice how beautiful it is there. In addition, I realize how lucky I was to be moving through such a beautiful environment as the spa town, which is incomparable to what a child, who must walk down the streets of Petržalka, sees. It also has its wondrous world and miraculous soul, but the surroundings are gray and rough...“