The generational testament of a young poet – manifesto and revolt.

Poetry  |  English sample translation available

In his second poetry collection, Jan Škrob looks at the tension between fact and fiction, and uses myth, visions and computer games to delve into some fundamental existential questions. Reality is a generational testament which has acquired young readers through translations into several languages, and at the same time it is a spiritual and political manifesto for human liberation. Jan Škrob has already been awarded two international literary prizes for this multi-layered collection of poems and texts (the Czech-German Dresden Poetry Award, and third place in the Czecho-Slovak competition Poems), which manages to suggest an alternative poetic world based on a literary manifesto and poetic rebellion against dystopia and the system.

Jan Škrob (1988) is a poet and translator. He made his debut with the collection Pod dlažbou (Under the Surface, 2016), for which he was nominated the DILIA Litera Award for discovery of the year. In 2018 he published his new collection of poetry entitled Reál (Reality). His poems were awarded 3rd place at the Czecho-Slovak competition Poems 2018. He won joint first prize together with Bastian Schneider at the Dresden Poetry Award. He lives in Prague.