Mária Štefánková

1951

She studied Slovak and English, but she mainly translates from Italian. She worked as an editor at the publishing houses Smena, Junior, Nestor, SLOVART or in the magazines Slovenské pohľady or Mosty.

She has translated several important authors from Italian, including Italo Calvino, Antonio Tabucchi, Alessandro Baricco, and Paolo Giordano and his works The Loneliness of Primes, The Human Body, and Black and Silver.

She has translated fiction and non-fiction throughout her life (e.g. Massimo Montanari's book Hunger and Plenty, for which she won the Matej Bel Translation Award). Among her most extensive works of fiction is her translation of Valeri Massimo Manfredi's three-part novel Alexander the Great (approx. 1,200 pages).

She has also translated Collodi's Pinocchio and the children's book classic, Rodari's fairy tales. She is also the author of several children's books, especially poetry books for the youngest readers.

A native of Nitra, she has dedicated her entire professional life to literature. She has translated over sixty titles for adults and children from English, but especially Italian. She has also written several fairy tales and nursery rhymes for the youngest (most recently, for example, a series of fold-out folios Hádanky z lúky, Hádanky z dvora). She is married, has three adult sons and four grandchildren. She attends the University of the Third Age, where she studies theater and music in the changes of time, and sings in the CANTUS choir.