In connection with the coronavirus pandemic, the Czech Literary Centre, Section of the Moravian Library in Brno, has announced a scholarship for authors from the Czech Republic. Out of 182 applications, the expert commission selected 16 scholarship winners in four genre groups, to whom it distributed a total of 560 thousand crowns.

The consequences of the pandemic have affected all players in the book market. Special scholarships are intended to support the creative writing of Czech authors at a time when their residencies, author readings and participation in festivals and fairs have been cancelled. “The great interest proved that it was a right step. According to the members of the evaluation committee, 80% of the applications were very creative and high-quality, which is pleasing news for the Czech literary market – readers can look forward to interesting new book releases,” says Martin Krafl, Head of the Czech Literary Centre.

During April, 182 authors applied for the scholarship, 101 of whom were female authors and 81 male. They were divided into 4 genre sections: artistic prose, poetry, comics and works for children and youth. Most applicants – 84 – were in the field of prose, followed by works for children and youth with 45 applicants, the poetry genre with 31 and comics with 22 applicants. Scholarships will be drawn from June to September 2020.

The commission was originally meant to support three projects in each category; due to the number of applicants and the quality of their literary projects, finally, in agreement with the Czech Literary Centre, it distributed scholarships to four selected applicants for each genre. The Czech Literary Centre believes that the supported works will be published as books and will be presented at the literary events co-organized by the Centre next year.

In individual genre categories, the commission selected the following scholarship winners:

Artistic prose: Petr Borkovec, Anna Cima, Markéta Pilátová, Marek Šindelka

Poetry: Básník Ticho, Milan Děžinský, Petr Hruška, Jitka N. Srbová

Comics: Džian Baban, Juliána Chomová, Lucie Lomová, S.d.Ch.

Works for children and youth: Marka Míková, Jana Šrámková, Martina Trchová, Eva Volfová

Members of the expert committee: prof. PhDr. Petr A. Bílek, CSc. (literary theorist and historian, Department of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University); Radovan Auer (director of the Book World Fair); PhDr. Jana Čeňková, Ph.D. (specialist in literature for children and youth, historian, critic, Department of Journalism, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University); Mgr. Blanka Činátlová, Ph.D. (literary scientist, Department of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University); Mgr. Pavel Kořínek, Ph.D. (literary scientist, comic book theorist, Institute for Czech Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic); Mgr. Olga Stehlíková, Ph.D. (poet, editor and critic)

Chairman of the expert committee: Dipl.- Ing. Martin Krafl, Czech Literary Centre / Moravian Library