Miloš Doležal

Miloš Doležal

Poet, writer, documentarist and journalist. An editor for Czech Radio who has made several programmes about the Second World War and communist totalitarianism in Czechoslovakia, some of which he has “recast” into books. He was born in Ledeč nad Sázavou on 1 July 1970.


Title Publisher Year Selected published translations Awards
Ezekiel in the Undergrowth (Ezechiel v kopřivách) Atlantis 2014
As If We Should Die Today (Jako bychom dnes zemřít měli) Nová tiskárna Pelhřimov 2012 IT  2012 Lidové Noviny Book of the Year
Černé svině křen Luboš Drtina 2011
I Wanted to be a Blanick Knight (Chtěl jsem být blanickým rytířem) CDK 2011
Balthus. Later Memories as Recorded by Alain Vircondelet (Balthus. Pozdní vzpomínky jak je zaznamenal Alain Vircondelet) Barrister & Principal 2011
A Shadow Stabbed in the Ribcage (Bodla stínu do hrudního koše) Thyrsus 2009  2009 The Most Beautiful Czech Book – Literature: 1st prize
The Rye Hag (ed.) (Režná bába (ed.)) Thyrsus 2007  2007 The Most Beautiful Czech Book – Literature: 1st prize
A Pickaxe and Shovel Against Evil (Proti zlému krompáč a lopata) Karmelitánské nakladatelství 2006
Sansepolcro (Sansepolcro) Arbor vitae 2004
I Begged and a Fly Came (Prosil jsem a přiletěla moucha) Karmelitánské nakladatelství 2004
The Journey of God (not) Through Time (Cesty božím (ne)časem) Karmelitánské nakladatelství 2003
The Time of Smoke (Čas dýmu) Atlantis 2003 FR | FR
Czech Hot Peppers (České feferony) Atlantis 2000
Forest (Les) Atlantis 1998
Stones (Kamení) Klub českých bibliofilů 1996
Community (Obec) Atlantis 1996 PL
The Village of Podivice (Podivice) Arca JiMfa 1995
Ezechiel v kopřivách
Ezekiel in the Undergrowth
Ezechiel v kopřivách
As If We Should Die Today
Jako bychom dnes zemřít měli
Černé svině křen
Černé svině křen
Chtěl jsem být blanickým rytířem
I Wanted to be a Blanick Knight
Chtěl jsem být blanickým rytířem
Balthus. Pozdní vzpomínky jak je zaznamenal Alain Vircondelet
Balthus. Later Memories as Recorded by Alain Vircondelet
Balthus. Pozdní vzpomínky jak je zaznamenal Alain Vircondelet
Bodla stínu do hrudního koše
A Shadow Stabbed in the Ribcage
Bodla stínu do hrudního koše
Režná bába (ed.)
The Rye Hag (ed.)
Režná bába (ed.)
Proti zlému krompáč a lopata
A Pickaxe and Shovel Against Evil
Proti zlému krompáč a lopata
Sansepolcro
Sansepolcro
Sansepolcro
Prosil jsem a přiletěla moucha
I Begged and a Fly Came
Prosil jsem a přiletěla moucha
Cesty božím (ne)časem
The Journey of God (not) Through Time
Cesty božím (ne)časem
Čas dýmu
The Time of Smoke
Čas dýmu
České feferony
Czech Hot Peppers
České feferony
Les
Forest
Les
Kamení
Miloš Doležal
Stones
Kamení
Obec
Community
Obec
Podivice
The Village of Podivice
Podivice
Award Year Country
Lidové Noviny Book of the Year 2012 Česká republika
The Most Beautiful Czech Book – Literature: 1st prize 2009 Česká republika
The Most Beautiful Czech Book – Literature: 1st prize 2007 Česká republika
Praise
Until now we have only known how the Číhošť priest, Josef Toufar, died. Thanks to Miloš Doležal, we now also know how he lived.
—Petr Zídek
Lidové noviny

His first collection of poetry was Podivice (The Village of Podivice, Atlantis, 1995),  followed by Obec (Community, Atlantis, 1996), both linked to his native Vysočina region, and Les (Forest, Atlantis, 1998), which extends its net to landscapes and life beyond civilization. In 2003 Atlantis published Čas dýmu (The Time of Smoke), and a year later Arbor vitae published the record of his travels across Tuscan Sansepolcro.

Doležal collected information about the death of the Číhošť priest, Josef Toufar, for twenty years. 2012 then saw the publication of the testimony Jako bychom dnes zemřít měli (As If We Should Die Today) about Toufar. “Until know we had known how Josef Toufar died. Now thanks to Miloš Doležal we know how he lived,” wrote Petr Zídek. The book won the Lidové noviny newspaper’s Book of the Year award and became the basis for a play by Husa na provázku Theatre. Here the Vysočina region also plays a fundamental role as a place of heroes and martyrs – but Doležal tells the story of Toufar’s life, his path towards God and the priesthood, his arrival in Číhošť and the miracle itself which occurred in December 1949. “Josef Toufar was neither a cold fish nor a moralizer, rather he was a straightforward, open person, who broke out of the church’s ghetto with his manly, rustic approach and sense of humour,” said the author when accepting the Book of the Year award. The book was also published in Rome in Italian.

Doležal’s collection Ezechiel v kopřivách (Ezekiel in the Undergrowth, Atlantis, 2014) was published two years later. “Doležal is the heir to Demel, Zahradníček, Čep, Reynek and Jirous. He is a poet from the Vysočina, but he is not provincial. This part of the land is so deeply embedded within him that the things which he brings from it are interesting in the broadest of contexts. His poetry is sharp and intense in its simplicity; his words are given space and resound as if for the first time. And it is poetry for those who otherwise ‘don’t understand’ it – in the spirit of Magor’s Swan Songs or Bohumila Grögerová’s Manuscript,” wrote Markéta Platzová in an article for the magazine Respekt. Here too Doležal is in the Vysočina – the starting point of his lament is the Zahrádka community, which fell victim to the construction of the Želivka dam. A regular theme in literature (as well as world literature) is that a place and a region are close to a person mainly because of the graves – of relatives and ancestors, and even their own.

Doležal then returned once more to Toufar when he collected and published three of his sermons from the final six months of his life under the title Vrátíme se do otcovské náruče (We are Returning to the Arms of the Lord, Nezávislý podmelechovský spolek, 2015).

Notable awards
 2012 Lidové Noviny Book of the Year