European Literature Night takes place May 14 in cities throughout Europe, with readings, performances, panel discussions and more. Prague’s Literature Night will take place in Žižkov and includes work from writers near and far, as well as a former classmate of mine from university who I’m willing to bet large amounts of money doesn’t remember […]
On Wednesday January 16, the American Center in Prague will be hosting an event (PDF) exploring the themes of the recently translated Czech novel Rustic Baroque by Jiří Hájíček. Titled “Collectivization – Restitution – Literature”, the panel discussion will feature the author as well as the novel’s translator Gale A. Kirking and collectivization historian Jiří […]
Czech writer Jiří Hájíček was one of the names on this year’s Finnegan’s List when fellow Czech novelist, graphic novelist and playwright Jaroslav Rudiš selected his 2012 novel Rybí krev (Fish Blood) among the three books to be more widely translated into European languages. In this case more widely is easy to define as the […]
The fourth annual Conrad Festival begins on October 22 in Kraków, the city the great writer moved to as a child before he hit the seven seas and eventually settled down to become an Englishman. In fact, the festival has nothing to do with Joseph Conrad other than borrowing his lofty patronage to welcome similar […]
A feminist version of Don Juan, a 900-page work of Greek surrealism that is a mixture of Joyce, Freud and Breton, one of the best Russian novels of the 20th century – and 27 more to go. The European Society of Authors released its third annual Finnegan’s List at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, with […]
“To your mad world—one answer: I refuse.” – from new translations by Ilya Kaminsky and Jean Valentine of Marina Tsvetaeva’s “Poems to Czechoslovakia.” The latest issue of Poetry magazine features a number of selections of the work of Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva. I will soon be writing something about Tsvetaeva’s brief but impactful time living […]
The varied world of Czech literature, past and present, contains a vast store of work virtually unknown outside of the Czech Republic Nothing lasts forever, and the recent losses of Václav Havel and Josef Škvorecký emphasize the finitude of what was probably the greatest generation of Czech writers. Fortunately, there are numerous younger writers whose […]
An article in Czech Position on the 2011 Josef Škvorecký Prize going to Czech novelist, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Martin Ryšavý for his novel Vrač. Continue Reading
Czech writers such as Milan Kundera, Bohumil Hrabal and Josef Škvorecký were an imposing presence in world literature in the last few decades of the 20th century. Today, a new generations of Czech novelists is beginning to make its mark. Coming off a recent appearance at the International Literature Festival Berlin, novelist Tomáš Zmeškal spoke […]
An innovative animated film shows often dark passages of Czech history through the eyes of a small-town stationmaster At a press conference presenting the film “Alois Nebel,” Jaroslav Rudiš recounted how he and co-writer Jaromír 99 (the pen name of Jaromír Švejdík) came up with the original idea for the comic on an autumn evening […]
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