The Czech Literary Centre, a section of the Moravian Library, in cooperation with other institutions, has prepared a rich discussion programme for visitors from the expert, professional and general public. The institutions the Czech Literary Centre cooperates with include the Polish Institute, Instytut książki, the Translators’ Guild, the Karolinum Publishing House and Book World. The Professional Forum enjoyed great interest from the public last year.

On Thursday, 9 May, you can have breakfast during a presentation of books from the Ibero-American region, listen to a lecture on e-shops or a panel discussion of literary agents. In the afternoon, you can attend a discussion on the results of the Leipzig Fair and in the evening there is speed dating with publishers for translators from Spanish and Portuguese.

On Friday, there is a networking breakfast for invited local and foreign publishers, and after lunch a series of lectures and workshops focusing not only on children’s reading and its support. You can also attend a literary-sociological lecture by Grzegorz Jankowicz, programme director of the Krakow literary festival Conrad. The programme ends with another speed dating session for translators with publishers.

On Saturday, there will be events with the UK guests of the Czech Literary Centre, Paul Gravett, focusing on the comic book scene, and Alexandra Büchler, who will talk about British book culture in the Brexit era. This time, booktubers and influencers will hold discussions with translators. Czech samizdat literature in translations will be discussed by translator Gerald Turner with Martin Machovec and Adéla Petruželková.

On Sunday, the Professional Forum programme will be completed with a Polish breakfast: an introduction to the main guest of Book World Prague 2020 – Poland.

A detailed programme of the Professional Forum can be found in the attachment.