A grand story

Halina Pawlowská

Halina Pawlowská is a writer and screenwriter. Born to a Ukrainian poet and a Czech teacher, she graduated from FAMU in screenwriting and dramaturgy. She has written about twenty television comedies, the most famous being Sardines, or the Life of One Family (Sardinky aneb Život jedné rodinky), a story based on Saroyan's short story Romance of All Sorts, and the children's TV play Rosa, the Guardian Ghost (Róza, strážné strašidlo). She also writes film screenplays. Her most successful films include the cult comedy Go Back to Your Grave (Vrať se do hrobu), and the comedies My Sinful Man (Můj hříšný muž), Eva, Get Married (Evo, vdej se) and Thanks for Every New Morning (Díky za každé nové ráno). She received an award for the latter screenplay from the American Sundance Foundation, founded by Robert Redford. She has also achieved significant success in journalism, being one of the founders of the Metropolitan daily newspaper. Under Dutch management, she launched Story magazine. Later, she became the owner and publisher of Šťastný Jim magazine, which won the Magazine of the Year award. She also founded Glanc magazine, serving as its face and regularly contributing short stories and columns. She made her television debut in 1993, creating and hosting successful TV shows such as In Clover (V žitě), Zanzibar, Perfect Happiness (Dokonalé štěstí) and Banana Fish (Banánové rybičky). In 2013, she wrote the libretto for the musical Adam and Eve (Adam a Eva). She currently teaches screenwriting at the Michael College and creative writing at the University of Creative Communication, alongside performing her successful one-woman theatre show. She looks after her large family and dogs, all of whom live with her in Podolí, Prague. Family, friends and love are the central themes of her books. She has written more than thirty titles and has repeatedly won awards as the most-read Czech female author, both in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.