“Tallo’s characters are tired, lonely and almost incapable of defending themselves. The reader watches their actions (or inaction) with surprise – and, somewhere in the back of their mind, suspects they might behave much the same way. Meticulously written, not a single unnecessary word, not a single showy metaphor. Just a precise depiction of the inner lives of people who keep hearing that “the world will never be the same again” on the news.”
- Jonáš Zbořil, Seznam Zprávy, 28.11.2025
“The border between the characters’ dreams, their psychotic visions, and reality itself bending is never truly clear. In this regard, Tallo’s writing often recalls László Krasznahorkai and his “exploration of reality to the point of madness”. Except that, unlike the Hungarian master, Tallo stops short of madness. He begins, yet never concludes the apocalypse. With sadistic precision, he always stops just before granting his characters the redemption that a complete loss of sanity would bring.”
- Tímea Zvoláneková, A2 25-26/2024
Michal Tallo (born 1993) is a writer, translator and former radio presenter from Slovakia. Writing in Slovak and English, he is the author of three books of poetry: Antimita (Antimacy, 2016), Δ (Delta, 2018) and Kniha tmy (The Book of Darkness, 2022). His most recent work, the short story collection Všetko je v poriadku, všade je láska (Everything’s Fine, Love Is Everywhere, 2024), received the 2024 Tatra Banka Foundation Prize and has appeared in Czech and German translation, with a Ukrainian edition forthcoming. In recent years, Tallo was awarded various writers’ residencies (Norway, Poland, Czech Republic) and presented his work at many international festivals . Apart from his own writing, he coordinates the Básne SK/CZ poetry prize and edited the anthology Junge Lyrik aus der Slowakei. Mladá poézia zo Slovenska, published by the German publishing house Danube Books Verlag. He has translated books by Andrew McMillan and Seán Hewitt into Slovak.
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Bones / a short story published in The /tƐmz/ Review Issue 29
Dreams of This Unfamiliar Earth / a short story published in HEAT Series 3 Number 15
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Všechno je v pořádku, všude je láska (Czech)
translated by Martina Bekešová, published by Paseka
2025
Alles in Ordnung, Liebe überall (German)
translated by Mirko Kraetsch, published by Anthea Verlag
2026
Poems from Antimita (Antimacy)
translated by John Minahane
b.
eventually you’ll meet him anyhow, walking the opposite way through his town,
you’re hurrying to the station, off, back home, after six days
of unannounced stay, you didn’t know whether to admit
to the need to declare
yourself, the desire to see and be seen,
eventually you’ll meet him anyhow, appearing the same as a year ago,
he’ll look at you and there’s nothing
in that, a reflection of a shiny advertising panel,
he won’t slow down or speed up, and you also will not,
and also there’s nothing in that, you know only
that he sees you,
that he knows
you see him
nausea
your view is broad, you have certainty in majority opinion, you need make
no surveys, the physical features are tangible, and hence
objectively measurable, leanness, hairiness of limbs,
length of fingers, set of the lower jaw, and curve of the brow ridge,
and with these compare the atopic eczema carried on into adulthood,
that man
furthermore came and stated something else, did not agree, he cannot be right,
his perception is twisted and disturbed, it departs from the norm,
he would touch you,
in your version vis-à-vis touching (you) there is universal
and on request documentable in detail
disgust