Martin Solotruk

Martin Solotruk is a Slovak poet, translator, and academic from Bratislava. He teaches at Comenius University, where he earned his PhD in American Poetry. His debut poetry collection, Tiché vojny (Silent Wars), won the Slovak Literary Fund Best Debut Award in 1997. This was followed by Mletie (Milling, 2001), Planktón gravitácie (Plankton of Gravity, 2005), and Lovestory: Agens and paciens (2007). Solotruk’s poetry is known for its analytical, processive style, exploring perception and consciousness through fragmented, meditative language.

He is also a celebrated translator of poets like Ted Hughes, John Ashbery, Seamus Heaney, and Charles Simic, winning the 2007 prize for Best Artistic Translation for Hughes’ Crow. His work has been featured in international anthologies, including New European Poets (2008). Solotruk is the Director of Ars Poetica International, a poetry festival and publishing house.