Authors

The writer Antonín Bajaja was born on 30th May 1942 to a family of doctors in Zlín. He is a graduate of the Brno School of Agriculture. From 1965 to 1973 he worked as a specialist in animal husbandry at the JZD [= united farmers’ cooperative] in Želechovive u Zlína, after which he headed the Regional Agricultural Laboratory of Agropodník Zlín. In 1991 he became an editor at Czechoslovakian Radio in Brno, and from 1992 he worked for the daily Prostor. Later he worked concurrently for the weekly Týden and as an editor for Radio Free Europe. Since 1996 he has taught courses in Creative Writing at Olomouc’s Palacký University and the Tomáš Batˇa University in Zlín. He is a co-founder of Zvuk, a magazine for the culture and society of the Zlín region; he was also instrumental in the birth of the Wlastenci choral society of the International PEN Club (Czech Centre). His awards include the annual Mladá Fronta Prize for his novel/diptych Duely [Duels], a prize in Brno’s 1993 European Feuilleton competition, and the 1994 Křepelek Prize for his creative input into Radio Free Europe’s programme Hlasy a Ohlasy [Voices and Echoes]. In 2004 he was awarded the Magnesia Litera Prize for his novel Zvlčení [Growing Wild].

Columnist, translator and author of prose fiction, Jan Balabán (born in Šumperk, on 21 January 1961) has lived in Ostrava since his childhood. He read Czech and English at Olomouc, and after completing his studies worked as a translator for the Vítkovice Ironworks. At present he makes his living as a free-lance translator. His published translations include works by H. P. Lovecraft and Terry Eagleton). Jan Balabán died April 23, 2010.

The philosopher Václav Bělohradský was born on 17. 1. 1944 in Prague, and if it hadn’t been for the Soviet occupation of 1968 he would probably have remained there. However, in 1970 he chose exile in Italy and since 1989 he has divided his life between Italy and the Czech Republic, living in the Italian town of Gorizia as well as in Prague.

Novelist, journalist, screenwriter, Jan Beneš was born March 23, 1936 in Prague. He is a graduate of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague and Charles University. His writing has appeared in numerous journals and magazines including, Plamen, Literární noviny, and Host do domu, and his debut volume was a collection of stories, Situace (Situations, 1963). In the 1950s and 1960s he was repeatedly incarcerated (for undermining troop morale, the illegal possession of firearms, the theft of army underwear, treason). In 1969 he emigrated to the United States, where his work was published by various exile presses (Sixty-Eight Publishers; Index; Konfrontace). He lectured at Harvard as a Research Fellow and wrote an overview of the history of Czechoslovakia for the U.S. Army. For nineteen years he taught Czech language, geography, and history to intelligence officers, agents of the FBI and CIA, and diplomatic personnel. He also contributed to the Czech émigré press. He returned to the Czech Republic after 1989 and lived in Obořiště near Příbram, where he died June 1, 2007.

Poet and fiction writer Zbyněk Benýšek was born in Olomouc, on 27 June 1949, and grew up in Prostějov. He studied at the secondary school of applied arts in Brno and later left for Prague where he held a number of jobs as a workman. After immigrating to Austria in 1982, he edited for ten years the émigré art review Paternoster published in Vienna. In 1992 he moved back to Prague, where he lives today, and, in addition to literary work, devotes himself to the visual arts and book design.

Stanislav Beran was born in 1977 in Jindřichův Hradec. He studied at the local grammar school, then graduated in Czech language and history from the Faculty of Education at J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. He lives in Jindřichův Hradec and works for a pharmaceutical company.

Author of prose fiction and screenplays, Alexandra Berková was born in Trenčín, Slovakia, on 2 July 1949. She graduated from glass-making school in Kamenický Šenov and then studied Czech and art education at Prague University. In 1973–81 she worked as an editor for the Svoboda and Československý spisovatel publishing houses. In 1989 she helped to found the Czech Writers’ Union. She was teaching creative writing at the Josef Švorecký School (a private secondary school and specialized college) and the Literature Academy, both in Prague., she collaborated with Czech Television, which has produced a number of films based on her scripts: Pánská jízda (Boys’ Night Out) in 1983, Bumerang (Boomerang) in 1986, Dva t. č. v zel. hl. dvě ves. nekuř. (Two Men Currently Doing National Service Seek Two Merry Non-Smokers) in 1986 – all directed by Karel Smyczek, Dámská jízda (Girls’ Night Out) in 1987, directed by Vít Olmer and Co teď a co potom? (What Now and What Then?) in 1991, directed by Hynek Bočan. Alexandra Berková died on June 16, 2008.

The novelist Ivan Binar was born in Boskovice on 25 June 1942. He took a degree in Czech, history, and art education at the Institute of Education, Ostrava. His career included teaching at a primary school, working as Editor-in-Chief of the youth magazine Tramp, as well as being a deliveryman and a power-plant mechanic. Binar immigrated to Austria in 1977 and worked for Radio Free Europe from 1983 until 2002. Then he was Chairman of the Czech Writers’ Union (2002-2004). He lives in Prague.

The writer and critic Vladimír Binar was born on 6 October 1941 in Velké Meziříčí. He graduated in Czech studies and philosophy at Charles University, Prague, and taught at the Arts Faculty there for a number of years. Thereafter he spent many years working as a freelance translator (with a brief spell as editor at a publishing house) before returning to the university in 1990. Several periods spent in French Polynesia left their imprint on his fiction, which he did not publish until 1990. He has also proved an outstanding editor of spiritual literature. He lives in Prague.

Fiction writer, columnist, essayist and translator, Blumfeld 2001 (real name Lubomír Drožď) was born on 22 August 1955. He graduated from a Prague secondary school for the applied arts. Since 1977 he has lived as an ‘environmental émigré’ in the conservation area of the Kokořín region. In 1985 he became an editor of Vokno, an underground magazine, and in 1990 took over as Editor-in-Chief. At present he is self-employed.

Egon Bondy (real name Zbyněk Fišer), philosopher, poet, writer, pamphleteer and journalist, one of the founders and long-term source of inspiration of Czech alternative culture, was born in Prague on January 20th 1930. After leaving school (1957) he took a correspondence course in philosophy and psychology at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts from 1957-1961. In 1967 he was awarded his PhD. From 1957-1962 he worked as a night watchman in the National Museum and from 1962-1967 he was a librarian in the State Library. In 1967 he took invalidity retirement. From 1993-1996 he lectured at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts and at other universities in Bratislava, where he lived from the beginning of the 1990s. He was involved in theatre work, translation, writing for children and music. Egon Bondy died on April 9th 2007.

Petr Borkovec was born on April 17, 1970, in Louňovice pod Blaníkem. He studied at the Johannes Kepler Gymnasium in Prague and then at Charles University’s Philosophical Faculty (Department of Czech Language and Literature), not yet finishing his degree. In 1992, he became editor of Souvislosti (Connections), a quarterly review of literature and culture, and worked as a proofreader for the daily MF Dnes. Between 1995 and 1997 he worked at Lidové noviny’s publishing house and until 1999 as editor and chief of its arts supplement “Umění and kritika.” From 2000 to 2001 he served as editor of the cultural weekly Literární noviny. At present his time is devoted to translating, primarily 20th-century Russian poetry, and publishing: he collaborated on an anthology of Russian émigré poetry (U řek babylonských, 1996); he co-translated a volume of Vladimir Nabokov’s poetry (Ut pictura poesis, 2002); he has translated the poetry of Vladislav Khodasevich (Težká lyra, 2004), Yuri Odarchenko (Verše do alba, 2005), and Yevgeny Reyn (Bylo, byli, byla, byl …, 2005). Borkovec has also worked with linguist Matyáš Havrda, to recast in verse the dramas of antiquity: Sophocles’s Oedipus the King in 1998 (published as a book in 1999) and Aeschylus’s The Oresteia trilogy in 2002. In 2001 he edited with Vladimír Pucek an anthology of classical Korean poetry. His translations of poets Zinaida Gippius, Georgiya Ivanova, and Joseph Brodsky have appeared in magazines and journals. His own work has appeared in numerous anthologies in addition to the collections that have been published. In 1995, he was awarded the Jiří Orten Prize for his collection Ochoz (Gallery) and in 2001 Germany’s Hubert Burda Prize and the Tyrol’s Nobert C. Kaser Prize for the German translation of Polní práce (Field Work). He also received an award for his translation of The Oresteia. Borkovec lives in Černošice, a small community just south of Prague.

Tereza Boučková was born on May 24, 1957, in Prague. After graduating high school, and then signing Charter 77, she worked as a cleaning woman, postwoman, and concierge. In the mid-1980s she moved from Prague to central Bohemia where she devoted her time to family life and writing her novels, which deal with women’s issues, and columns and feuilletons for newspapers.

The novelist Zuzana Brabcová was born in Prague on 23 March 1959. After completing secondary school she was a helper in a hospital and then found work as a charwoman. After the Changes of November 1989 she was employed in the Foreign Ministry and later became an editor in the Český spisovatel and Hynek publishing houses. She is now an editor at Garamond publishers and lives in Prague.

His original first name was Karel Adolf. Born in Prague on 4 October, 1910 into an acting family, Branald spent his childhood travelling with theatre companies and acting small roles in theatre and film. Then he worked in a number of positions, including fourteen years as an economist and then a press manager with the national railway company, and seven years as an editor in a publishing house. From 1959, he was a professional writer. Some of Branald's works have been made into films (Old Man Motor-Car – Dědeček automobil; Ward Round – Pozor, vizita; Nurses - Sestřičky). Adolf Branald died no September 28, 2008.

This duo are prose writers, poets, playwrights, journalists and translators. Zdena Bratršovská was born on May 13th 1951 in Prague and did not complete her studies in history and sociology at Brno’s Philosophical Faculty of the University of J. E. Purkyně. From 1969–72 she was a member of the experimental studio Bílé divadlo [White Theatre], where she met F. Hrdlička.

Tereza Brdečková was born in 1957 in Prague. A journalist and writer, she studied film editing at the film academy, FAMU, from 1977 to 1982. After 1989 she worked as a film critic, reporter, and editor for radio and print (BBC, Czech Radio, Lidové noviny, Respekt, Týden). She is an accomplished screenwriter (e.g. Toyen), and since 1997 she has presented a monthly program on Czech Television, “I’m Still Here,” which is a series of conversations with Czech senior citizens about “their lives, history, and growing old.” She lives in Prague.

Ivona Březinová was born on May 12th 1964 in Ústí nad Labem. After finishing her school-leaving exams she studied at the College of Education at J. E. Purkyně University (Czech language – history); afterwards she worked there as an assistant at the Czech studies department and gained her doctorate from the pedagogical sciences in Czech language and literature. As a specialist assistant she first concentrated on Czech literature from the 19th century and the start of the 20th, and then, later, on literature for children and young people. After several years working at the university she married and moved to Prague where she gave birth to two daughters and began writing books aimed mainly at children and teenagers. In Prague she taught creative writing at the Josef Škvorecký Private High School and she currently leads seminars on creative writing at the Literary Academy. She is also a judge at many children’s literature competitions.

Poet, fiction writer, essayist and visual artist Eugen Brikcius was born in Prague on 30 August 1942. After graduating from secondary school he did various jobs, including as a bricklayer’s mate, electric-float operator, and programmer. He read philosophy and sociology as an external student at Prague in 1966–68, and philosophy at University College, London, in 1968–70. He was finally able to complete his studies in 1981–82. During the 1970s he worked independently as a visual artist. Since 1982 he has lived in Vienna, where he initially made a living as an office worker, but is now self-employed. In 1966–70 he organized ‘happenings’, and resumed them after the Changes of 1989–90 in the form of ‘conceptual events’.

The writer Pavel Brycz was born on July 28th 1968 in Roudnice nad Labem. He studied Czech at the College of Education in Ústí nad Labem and later went on to study drama at Prague’s DAMU. He worked as a secondary school teacher, a journalist and a copywriter for an advertising agency.

Pavlína Brzáková (born 13. 3. 1972 in Městec Králové) devotes herself systematically to the study of the cultures of the indigenous inhabitants of Siberia and has already published several documentary and prose books from that environment.