She alternates between poetry and prose. Her texts are written both in Czech and in English. She debuted in 1997 with the bilingual volume of verses accompanied by shorter prose pieces Tělokresba/Bodypainting. Her first work of fiction was the imaginative novel Vášeň pro broskve, for which she received the Book Club’s Literary Award. She soon achieved recognition in various national competitions, represented Czech literature abroad (book fairs, bursaries, author’s readings and discussion forums; USA, GB, India, Germany, Slovakia).
The result of a three-month creative residence in New Delhi, which Chase won as part of the international programme UNESCO-ASCHBERG, was a bilingual poetry collection designed by the author and issued on sheets of hand-made paper, Bobule/Eyeberries. This bursary is awarded internationally each year to one writer and one artist. After that, at the invitation of the Indian Poetry Society, she presented her work to members of the society during readings at the India International Center in New Delhi. At the invitation of Rutgers University, USA, she visited the campus in 1997 and gave a speech entitled Smuggling Verses on contemporary Czech poetry.
There followed the collections of fanciful stories Hypnoskop and Maso a pomeranče, and alsoŠťáva, where the author enlivened the mix of poetic prose and poems with her own black-and-white illustrations. She is currently preparing for publication her fourth poetry collection, entitled Třicet smrt celých jahoda, which she compiled during her creative residency in Latvia in the House of Writers and Translators (Ventspils).
She makes a living predominantly through activities connected with language, from translation through teaching and editorial work to copywriting. Apart from literature she also works with narrative photographs and illustrations.
In Czech and English she is represented in several anthologies of contemporary prose and poetry (Jedním uchem dovnitř,Rádio 1 miscellany, Labyrint 1997, 27 českých malířů očima 27 českých spisovatelů, Vivo 2001, S tebou sám – Anthology of Contemporary Czech Love Poems, Dauphin 2005, Jezdec na delfíně – Anthology of Czech Erotic Literature 1990–2005, Concordia 2005, Divoká jízda, Euromedia Group-Book Club, 2006, Prague Tales,collection of contemporary Central European literature, New Europe Writers 2007,Ty, která píšeš – Reader of Contemporary Czech Women’s Stories, Artes Liberales 2008).
Photo: Jaroslava Šnajberková
This profile was last updated on 1. 11. 2010
