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Czech BooksA remarkable book tells a story of resilience and courage
Not many people have their first book published when they are over 80, but
Jaroslava Skleničková is a remarkable exception. Her home village is
Lidice, a few miles to the west of Prague, where she and her husband
Čestmír, will be celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary next year.
But the fact that Jaroslava is alive at all is nothing short of a miracle.
Her book, which has just been published in English, tells the moving story
of her life, as David Vaughan reports in this week’s Czech Books.
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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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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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Current AffairsPopular Czech children’s book under fiver over racist undertones
A racist passage from a popular Czech children’s book recently sparked a
heated debate in the Czech media after a Romany activist asked for it to be
withdrawn from the school curriculum. Thousands of Czechs publicly opposed
the request, which was also dismissed as unjustified by some Romany
organizations. But others believe the issue of racist undertones in some
Czech literary works should be taken seriously.
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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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Czech BooksAlchemy and wife swapping in Renaissance Bohemia
The philosopher, scientist and mystic, John Dee, was one of the great
figures of Elizabethan England. He was a close confidante of the Queen and
one of the founders of modern science, at a time of transition from the
medieval to the modern age – a time when science and alchemy, magic and
mathematics intertwined. In the 1580s John Dee came to Bohemia, along with
family and his mysterious friend and assistant, the alchemist Edward Kelley
– who supposedly possessed the gift of communicating with spirits.
Between them, they left an indelible mark on Czech history.
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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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One on OneAnna Kareninová – leading Czech literary and film translator
Anna Kareninová is a leading Czech literary translator and editor who also
does the subtitles for a lot of the films that appear on the country’s
cinema and TV screens. Many viewers would no doubt imagine that Anna
Kareninová is a nom de plume, as it is the Czech version of Anna Karenina,
the heroine of the Tolstoy novel of the same name. In fact, she told me at
Prague’s Café Slavia, the name was assumed, not by her but by her
father, after he fled from Russia in 1917.
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