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One on OneChris Baerwaldt: an American brewer in the Czech Republic
Among the small beer producers presenting their wares at the Czech Beer
Festival currently on in Prague is the Zhůřák brewery, which is run by
Chris Baerwaldt. He moved to the Czech Republic from the US, and produces
wheat beers and ales at his home near the small west Bohemian town of
Zhůř. When we met just before the Czech Beer Festival, I asked Baerwaldt
what had brought him to this country in the first place.
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Czech BooksHeresy and Rebellion in Prague
The Prague Writers’ Festival which begins on June 6 is all about the
encounter of ideas. Over the last twenty years this annual event has become
a lively forum for writers from many parts of the world, and the diversity
of their work and thought has been the festival’s greatest strength. This
year it revolves around the theme of Heresy and Rebellion, pointing to the
perennial tension between the writer and the society in which he or she
lives. A couple of days ago I met the festival director, Michael March, to
talk about this year’s event. We began by looking at the festival’s roots,
which go back more than 30 years. In the late 1970s Michael March started
organizing readings in London by writers from behind the Iron Curtain, and
in the process he found out just how little people knew about Central and
Eastern Europe.
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Czech BooksIvan Jelínek: a poet in the newsroom
If you had been listening to Radio Prague back in the late 1930s, it is
very likely that you would have heard the voice of Ivan Jelínek. He was
one of the pioneers of broadcasting in Czechoslovakia, and an early
presenter of our broadcasts to Britain and North America. From the radio
headquarters here in Vinohrady, he witnessed many of the dramas leading up
to World War Two, including moment of the German occupation itself. During
his wartime exile in Britain and in the decades that followed the war, Ivan
Jelínek became a familiar voice in the Czechoslovak section of the BBC,
and he continued to broadcast from London until his death in 2002, at the
age of 93. But Ivan Jelínek was not just a broadcaster. His lifelong
passion was poetry. In Czech Books this week, I’ll be looking at
Jelínek’s fascinating life and work.
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Czechs in HistoryEgon Erwin Kisch – the Raging Reporter
One of Prague’s best known German-language authors was Egon Erwin Kisch,
who was born in the Czech capital 125 years ago this Thursday. His
excellent style and original choice of stories, together with his dramatic
life, earned him a reputation of the ‘Raging Reporter’ that is still
very much alive today.
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Czech BooksA new anthology celebrates Prague’s international literary culture
Since the fall of communism, Prague has been a very international city, and
this has had a deep impact on the city’s literary culture. Many Prague
writers today have their roots outside the Czech Republic and are not
necessarily writing in the Czech language. At the same time, Czech writers
themselves have been strongly influenced by the growing cosmopolitanism of
the city, which contrasts starkly with the stifling political atmosphere
of
the 70s and 80s. In a few weeks’ time Prague’s international literary
scene will be celebrated with the publication of a major new anthology, a
hefty volume featuring two decades of writing from the Czech Republic in
English or in English translation. Its editor is the writer and artist
Louis Armand, who teaches at Prague’s Charles University, and he told me
how the anthology came about. More
One on OneJustin Quinn - A Prague-based poet, professor and translator
The Irish poet Justin Quinn has been living in the Czech Republic for close
to two decades. His latest collection of poetry, “Waves and Trees” has
been translated into Czech, and he himself has also translated the work of
Czech poets, such as Petr Borkovec, into English. I talked to Justin Quinn
about translating poetry and how living away from his native country has
affected the poetry he writes.
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Current AffairsArnošt Lustig behind the counter at the Franz Kafka book shop in Prague
Arnošt Lustig, one of the Czech Republic’s literary greats, has been
giving salespeople a helping hand this week. Although still weak from an
ongoing battle with cancer, Mr. Lustig put a smile on his face and spent a
week behind the sales desk at the Franz Kafka book shop in Prague,
attracting crowds of people who came to buy an autographed book and wish
him well.
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Czech BooksEdwin Muir: a Scottish poet in Prague
Literature sometimes makes for some unusual connections. What, for example,
could Franz Kafka possibly have in common with the Orkney Islands off the
north coast of Scotland? To find the answer we start at the busy British
Council office, just a couple of streets down from Czech Radio’s
headquarters. Just after World War II, the British Council here was headed
by Edwin Muir, who was born in 1887 in Orkney and grew up on the tiny
island of Wyre. He is one of Scotland’s best known 20th century poets,
but it is also quite possible that you will have come across his name and
that of his wife Willa on the inside cover of one of Franz Kafka’s novels
or stories. They translated many of his works and did much to establish his
reputation in the English-speaking world. What is less well-known about
Edwin Muir is the time he spent in Prague, first in the 1920s and then
again between 1946 and 1949. Clarice Cloutier, who teaches literature at
two Prague universities, has written about Edwin Muir’s link to this city
– a link which, she tells me, is a good deal more than skin deep:
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One on OneMark Weston – an English hair-stylist working in Prague
My guest on One on One is hair-stylist Mark Weston. When I visited his
one-seat Salon Trichomania on Prague’s Anglická Street, he told me what
brought him from his native country of England and his second home-town of
Hamburg, Germany, to the Czech Republic. We talked about the hairstyles
Czechs prefer and how that is changing but I began by asking him how he got
interested in cutting and coloring hair in the first place.
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