Poetry

In the collection A City in One Stone, Ladislav Zedník speaks more freely and personally than before, while still retaining his formal virtuosity. Zedník was one of the first poets of his generation to understand the importance of creating a mythological framework for his poems. In this collection he develops his own universe using a sly myth. The author returns to key moments of his childhood and adolescence. Palaeontology, his original profession, plays a major role. In the book we find bizarre, everyday places like the Podolí swimming pool or the cement factory in Radotín, as well as magical lands where a coastal atoll may lie just beyond the next village. The poems are not afraid of technical terminology. However, the result is not inaccessible ‘scientific’ poetry, rather it is confident poetry which is not afraid to manipulate poetic clichés and turn them into something new.

Praise

“The poetic testimony of an adult man, who without showing off and yet with an overview of geological periods, carefully examines his own period, his own life and the lives of his fellow man.”

— Magnesia Litera jury