Květoslava Podhradská spent her childhood in the Ostrovany settlement near Sabinov. When she was seven, her family moved to Ostrava-Poruba. While studying at a two-year family school, she began working in a dairy, later in a flower shop, and while working at the Boskovice Retirement Home, she studied social work for ethnic minorities at the Prof. Zdeněk Matějček Secondary School. She lived in England for several years, where she worked in a frozen food factory and ran a butcher shop and supermarket with her children.
She began writing in Romani during her secondary school studies. She is a member of the Paramisara Romani Writers’ Club under the auspices of the Slovo 21 organization. In 2012, she submitted the short story “E cikňi čhajori pale Slovensko” / “Little Girl from Slovakia” to the Romano suno (Romani Dream) literary competition organized by Nová škola, which led to the creation of a special category for adults. She published the short story “Sametová revoluce” / “The Velvet Revolution” from the perspective of an ordinary Romani woman on the Romea.cz website. She contributed the short story “Když smrt přichází” / “When Death Is Near” to the anthology O mulo! Povídky o duchách zemřelých (Look, a Ghost! Stories about the Ghosts of the Dead, Kher, 2019). Her short story “Miri britsko odiseja” / “My British Odyssey” was printed in the Romani studies journal Romano džaniben. Her short story “Andal e sikhľarďi andre aver sikhľarďi” / “From School to School” was published in the anthology Amare ternenge – Romani Writers Write for Young People (Nová škola 2020). In the anthologies Všude samá krása (Nothing but Beauty Everywhere, Kher, 2021) and Samet blues (Velvet Blues, Kher, 2021), she published the short stories “Denaš, Margitko!” / “Run for it, Margita” and “Dům ve Štěrkové” / “The House on Štěrková Street”. As part of a literary call by the Kher publishing house, she wrote the short story “Akor pro Vichodos” / “Once Upon a Time in the East” about a trip to Bulgaria during the previous regime, which was published in the TaBOOK 2020 festival guide. In the anthology Fameľija nadevše (Family Above All Else, Slovo 21, 2024) she published the story “Pro rodinu vše” / “Everything for the Family”, and the story “Cožpak doktoři lžou?” / “Why Would a Doctor Lie?” came out in Podvázané mašličkami (Tubes Tied with Ribbons, Slovo 21, 2025). In 2025, the literary supplement of the Respekt weekly carried her short story “Děcka z Ostrovan” / “Ostrovany Kids”. In 2022, her debut, a children’s book entitled Conversations Over Plum Jam / O vakeriben paš o lekvaris, illustrated by Klára Zahrádková, was released. It won two awards - the Golden Ribbon for the Publisher of the Year and the title of the Most Beautiful Book of the Year (3rd place in the category of children’s fiction).
She writes in Romani and Czech.
Photo: Petr zewlakk Vrabec
