Pavel Šrut receives State Award for Literature for his body of work

Šrut (b. 1940) is an author of prose, poetry and books for children.

Awards

statni cena

He studied English and Spanish at Charles University in Prague and has been working freelance since the start of the 1970s. His work for children is distinguished by its whimsical mood and linguistic inventiveness, often with its nonsensical imagery inspired by nursery-rhymes. Of his prose works those which merit particular attention are the fairy-tale Verunka a kokosový dědek (2002) and Lichožrouti (2008; winner of the Book of the Decade for Children and Young People in the Magnesia Litera competition, 2011) and Lichožrouti se vracejí (2010). See his author profile for more information.

Two of Šrut’s poetry collections have been published in English: Paper Shoes translated by Ema Katrovas and a bilingual edition of Červotočivé světlo / Worm-Eaten Light translated by Deborah Garfinkle. Next year, the US publisher Phoneme Media will publish Worm-Eaten Time also translated by Deborah Garfinkle.

The award was presented to Šrut on 26. 10. 2015 during a ceremony at the Convent of Saint Agnes in Prague. The State Award for Translation was presented to Hanuš Karlach during the same event.

Established in 1995, the State Award for Literature is given for an original Czech literary work or for an author’s body of work. The winner is decided by a jury selected by the Czech Ministry of Culture.

CzechLit