After completing his studies at the Pavel Jozef Šafárik University in Prešov, Silvester Lavrík taught Slovak and Art Education. Later, he founded the amateur theatre association BáPoDi where he was the director. After a variety of jobs he moved to Bratislava, where he studied stage direction at the Academy of Performing
Arts and worked as an editor in the Slovak Radio. As an author and director of plays he has collaborated with several professional theatre companies in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic, e.i. Zlín, Prague, České Budějovice and Ostrava, and also in Budapest. From 2000 he was the artistic leader of the Zlín Urban Theatre; afterwards, he became the director of the culture and arts oriented Radio Devín (under Slovak Radio). He now works as the project manager in Radio Litera and Radio Klasika. His best-known books of fiction include Allegro barbaro (nine stories 2002), Villa Lola (2004), Zlodeji (Thieves, a collection of story texts, 2005), Perokresba (Pen Sketch, 2006), Zu (novel, 2011), Naivné modlitby (Naive Prayers, novel, 2013) and Nedeľné šachy s Tisom (Sunday Chess with Tiso, 2016), nominated for the Anasoft litera Prize. His latest work is the documentary novel Posledná barónka (The Last Baroness, 2019). Lavrík is a multi-dimensional figure: a fiction-writer, dramatist, theatre manager, director, publicist, commentator and essayist. He tends to add a touch of fantasy to ordinary life events. By fusing senseless or irrational elements with the world of reality, he disturbs the realistic proportions, while the absurd moment highlights the characters’ loneliness and emotional emptiness.
