This year, six Czech writers are attending the prestigious Brooklyn Book Festival, which is being held from 22 to 30 September. English editions of their books will be presented in New York by the prose writers Jáchym Topol, Kateřina Tučková, Petra Hůlová and Patrik Banga, the poet Milan Děžinský, and the screenwriter and comics writer Vojtěch Mašek.
On Friday 27 September, a Czech evening at Wild East Brewing will feature Milan Děžinský, Patrik Banga, Petra Hůlová, and the translator Alex Zucker. The event will be hosted by Jan Zikmund from the Czech Literary Centre. The following day, Vojtěch Mašek will lead a festival workshop for children and introduce his book Puppet, Plum Pit, Plum and Back to Puppet. On Sunday afternoon, Jáchym Topol and Kateřina Tučková will join in discussions with prominent international writers.
On Monday 30 September, the Czech Center New York will present a programme at the Bohemian National Hall titled: From Kafka to Tučková, which aims to present contemporary Czech literature to American publishers, journalists and translators.
As part of their trip to New York, the Czech Literary Centre has organized two follow-up readings with the writers. On Monday evening, Milan Děžinský visits the Sarah Lawrence College, where he will appear alongside the American poet Victoria Redel. On Friday 4 October at Saint Paul in Minnesota, Patrik Banga together with Alex Zucker and Jan Zikmund will present The Book of Prague, an anthology of Czech short stories.
There will also be five literary agents and publishers as part of the Czech delegation in New York – Dana Blatná (Dana Blatná Literary Agency, Maria Sileny (Prague Literary Agency), Veronika Chaloupková (Argo), Petra Nováková (Labyrint) and Pavlína Juračková (Paseka) – who will be involved in discussions with their American counterparts in New York.
The project’s main organizer is Pavel Mandys of Spolek Litera and has been financed by the National Recovery Plan. The project partners also include the Czech Literary Centre and the Czech Center New York.