Archive: Culture | Literature Literature
Best-selling author Robert Fulghum: all the ‘real’ writing happens when I am doing other things
It’s no secret that American writer Robert Fulghum loves the Czech
Republic and that his books, published by Argo, have proven immensely
popular here. He has been back at least ten times over the years to
promote
his work, from his famous All I Really Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten to his latest, Memories of One Adventure. More
Adéla Gálová: Magyars are not from Mars
The Czech Republic and Hungary are countries of similar size with plenty of
history in common, whether we look back to the days of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire or the common experience of invasion in more recent decades: in 1956
for Hungary and 1968 for Czechoslovakia. And you don’t have to look far
to find parallels in the literature of the two countries. In Czech Books,
David Vaughan looks at some of these Czech-Hungarian literary links from
the point of view of a Czech who is steeped in contemporary Hungarian
writing. More
Czech-born author and publisher Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz
My guest today is Marketa Goetz Stankiewicz, a professor emerita at the
University of British Columbia. Born in 1927 in the Czech town of Liberec,
Marketa left Czechoslovakia following the communist putsch in 1948. She
established herself in Canada as a professor of comparative literature,
author and essayist, focusing in particular on publishing samizdat
literature, and also writing about the work of Czech playwrights such as
Pavel Kohout, Josef Topol, Ivan Klíma, and her friend the former president
Václav Havel. More
Writers’ fest “downsized” but bringing Pamuk to Prague
Wednesday sees the launch of the 23rd Prague Writers’ Festival, whose
highlights will include appearances by one of the most important guests the
event has ever brought to the Czech capital: the Noble Prize-winning
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. However, problems surrounding funding mean that
this year’s festival will be the shortest to date. More
The Prague Literature House: “a developing story”
Until the middle of the 20th century, the territory of today’s Czech
Republic had always been bilingual and its German literary legacy is huge.
Adalbert Stifter, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Werfel, Max Brod and Franz
Kafka are just a few of the best known writers, but there are hundreds of
others, many undeservedly neglected or even quite forgotten. David Vaughan
looks at an initiative to kindle interest in this country’s German
literature and to revive Czech-German literary ties. More
Elena Buixaderas: a Spanish poet in Prague
At a crossroads in Europe, the Czech capital has always been an
international city and has attracted writers from many parts of the world.
But, despite the rich historical links between the two countries going back
to the 16th century and beyond, we would not normally associate modern
Prague with Spain. One person who has been building literary Spanish-Czech
bridges for the best part of two decades is the Prague based Spanish poet,
Elena Buixaderas. She is David Vaughan’s guest in Czech Books. More
Children’s book King & King to see Czech edition
King and King (Koning und Koning), a young children’s book by authors
Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland that was first published in Dutch but has
since been translated into English and several other languages, is slated
to soon get a Czech edition. The children’s book tells the story of young
prince Bertie who must marry in order to inherit the kingdom. The twist is
that he falls not for the princess but for her brother. More
Jindřich Mann: a Czech in a famous German literary family
Even if you have never read anything by the great German novelist Thomas
Mann, you will almost certainly have come across Visconti’s film of his
most famous novella, “Death in Venice”. Thomas Mann is the best known
member of one of Germany’s most celebrated literary families. Several of
his children also had literary careers, but it is Thomas Mann’s elder
brother Heinrich, born in 1871, who is the focus of this week’s Czech
Books. Also a novelist, he had close associations with Czechoslovakia.
David Vaughan explores the Czech branch of the Mann family. More
“Heaven, distance, light and dazzling brightness”: Czech literary links with Scandinavia
Did you know that one of Norway’s popular writers is actually Czech, or
that in the mid 1930s Karel Čapek fell in love with the forests and skies
of Scandinavia? And do Czechs and Danes have more in common than just beer?
David Vaughan looks at Czech-Scandinavian literary links. More
Dora Diamant: Kafka's Last Love
In today’s edition of the Arts we meet American scholar Kathi Diamant,
who has spent years researching and writing about her namesake – Dora
Diamant. Dora was a Polish émigré living in Berlin when she met Czech
writer Franz Kafka for the first time in 1923. She became the great
novelist’s last lover – spending the final eleven months of his life
with him in a shared Berlin flat. Kathi Diamant has just written a book
about Dora, titled ‘Kafka’s Last Love’. She spoke to Radio Prague’s
Anna Kubišta about how she originally became interested in the topic: More
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