VÁCLAV HAVEL EUROPEAN DIALOGUES 2021 - THE OTHER EUROPE On-line conference 11 - 12 May 2021

Martin M. Šimečka is a Slovak author and journalist. He was one of the few Slovak authors who published in samizdat during communism. Simecka’s novel The Year of the Frog has been translated into English, French and other languages and in 1994 won the L. A. Times Book Prize (The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction). 

In November 1989 he was one of the founders of the revolutionary movement Public against Violence in Slovakia.

In 1990 he founded the independent publishing house Archa. He later became editor-in-chief of Domino-forum, a Slovak weekly. From 1997 to 2006 he acted as editor-in-chief of SME, Slovakia's leading daily newspaper. In the years 2006 to 2008 he was editor-in-chief of Respekt, a well-known Czech weekly, and from 2009 was an editor and contributor at the publication. Since 2016 he has been a commentator for Dennik N, a newly founded daily newspaper in Slovakia.