Katarína Kucbelová

According to the author’s witty characterization, The Bonnet is an ethnographic report on embroidering. The author explored an important folklore area below Kralova Hora in the Low Tatras for two years. There she wanted to learn how to make a bonnet, part of the local women’s folk costume covering married women’s hair; originally, this head covering marked a woman’s position in society, lineage, and marital status. In the process, she learned many other things about living in a remote mountain village in a gradually depopulating region, about herself, about folk culture, about living with the Roma, and about stereotypes, including her own. She did not photograph, film, or record anything. She just listened, observed, embroidered, and made notes.

Published by Slovart, 2019

Katarína Kucbelová (*1979) is a Slovak writer and, as a cultural manager, was behind the creation of the prestigious literary award Anasoft Litera. She made her literary debut in 2003 and is the author of four poetry collections and a prose book, The Bonnet (Čepiec) (in Czech in 2020), combining elements of a documentary novel and literary reportage. She lives in Bratislava with her husband and daughter.