Born 1981, the writer and poet Anna Bolavá graduated in Czech Studies at Charles University in Prague. Then she worked at the Czech Language Institute of the Academy of Sciences but also as a factory worker, cleaner and proofreader. For her prose debut Do tmy (Into Darkness) she won the prestigious Magnesia Litera Award and was hailed by critics as one of the major discoveries of recent years.

The author, whose real name is Bohumila Adamová, spent her childhood in a small town in South Bohemia, an area with enchanted countryside. This has a significant influence on her literary work, which can be considered nature writing. Anna Bolavá lives with her husband and three children in Prague and South Bohemia.