The idea of increasing the number of contemporary Czech books published abroad through a literary award was first conceived in 2011 by a group of Czech writers. Currently, the award has thirty international observers in ten countries and three continents.

The short-story collection Číňanova pěna (The Chinese Man’s Foam) by the first winner of the award, Vladimír Binar, was published in French, Polish and Bulgarian. The novel Němci (The Germans) by the 2013 winner, Jakuba Katalpa, was published in Bulgarian and Slovenian. The Madrid-based publisher Xorki also decided to publish Veronika Bendová’s debut novel Non-stop Eufrat (Non-stop Euphrates) which came in third in 2013. Jan Němec’s Dějiny světla (A History of Light), which won in 2014, will be published in Polish and Bulgarian with the help of the award and the most recent winner, Matěj Hořava’s short-story collection Pálenka (Distilled Spirit), will also soon be published in Polish and Bulgarian.

The winning books have also been published in a number of other languages without the support of the award.

The project, whose partners are Czech Centres and The Arts and Theatre Institute, is supported by the Hradec Králové region and the Czech Ministry of Culture.

More information about the award can be found on the official website.