Marek Šindelka

writer, poet, and screenwriter

Marek Šindelka (1984) is a Czech writer, poet, and screenwriter. He is one of the most prominent and most widely translated Czech prose writers of his generation. He made his debut with the poetry collection Strychnin a jiné básně (Strychnine and Other Poems, 2005), for which he won the Jiří Orten Award. This was followed two years later by his debut novel Aberrant, which was published in English in 2017. His other works include the collection of short stories Zůstaňte s námi (Stay Tuned, 2011), which won the Magnesia Litera award for prose. Šindelka’s texts are characterised by vivid imagery, precise composition, and an ability to capture the tension of the contemporary world through both physical and mental experience. As a screenwriter, he collaborated with Vojtěch Mašek on the film Occupation (2021), which won a Czech Lion Award for best screenplay. In 2026, after a ten-year hiatus, he published a new novel called Systémy něhy (Systems of Tenderness), in which he revisits themes of fragility, loneliness, and the pressure to perform, demonstrating how societal demands affect the human psyche, body, and intimate relationships.