Czech Books | All stories

Today's Czech Books looks at Magdalena Platzova who has in her mid thirties published two books, poems and is author of three theatre plays. The plays were very well received, although critics warmed less to Platzova's first book "Salt, Sheep and Stones" published 2 years ago.

In this edition we visit the office of the Prague Writers' Festival and talk to Michael March, who has organized the event from its inception. The festival begins on Sunday 5th June, and if you are not in Prague it is also possible to follow events live through the festival website. Michael March began his conversation with Bernie Higgins by telling her what would be his own personal highlight this year.

In this week's Czech Books we talk to Alexandra Büchler, a very important name in terms of Czech literature worldwide. She has been instrumental not only in translating, but also in organizing projects to make Czech literature and the literatures of other smaller countries known to a wider public. She was in Prague recently for the Prague Book Fair, when Bernie Higgins took the opportunity to ask her about her work. She began by asking about the book fair itself.

I was recently sent a letter by Joseph Hurka, an American writer and university lecturer. He enclosed a book he had written with the intriguing title "Fields of Light". In his letter Mr Hurka wrote, "The book follows a 1993 journey that I took to the Czech Republic to follow in the footsteps of my father, who fought in the Underground against the Stalinist government." I was absorbed and began to read. As Joseph Hurka tells his father's story there are moments of high drama:

Katerina Rudcenkova is one of the two Czech poets featured in a new book published by Arc publications, called "A Fine Line: New Poetry from Eastern and Central Europe". It has a preface written by former President Vaclav Havel and it has had excellent reviews. Katerina talks to Bernie Higgins.

Today's Czech books looks at the poet, surrealist, and one-time minister Vitezslav Nezval, charting his progress from 'enfant terrible' to 'homme d'etat'. The story all starts in 1900, with the birth of Vitezslav in the Moravian town of Trebic. He lived in the region until 1919, when he dropped out of university in Brno and moved to study in Prague.

"Giving children bread and butter, fruit and other treats between meals is ill advised. Firstly, their stomachs are not always strong enough to eat and digest everything, which causes them to fall ill - and secondly they come to develop a sweet tooth; the undesirable consequences of which are far reaching."

North Bohemia is a strange part of the Czech Republic. It combines bleak industrial towns with striking natural beauty, and its people are also different. The area was almost completely depopulated with the expulsion of its German inhabitants after World War Two, and people moved in from across Czechoslovakia. So perhaps it's not surprising that North Bohemia also has its own very special and rather peculiar literary culture.

The impossibly named Mnohacek Zgublacenko writes sung poems. He is one of the writers featured in a brand new anthology of Czech literature. This is a fantastic book of over sixty new writers, and the good news is that it is going to be available in English translation later in the year. It will be available on the Czech Ministry of Culture website. Mnohacek Zgublacenko is one of the poets living in the Twilight Zone of North Bohemia.

Today's 'Czech Books' looks at the journalist and author, Ota Pavel. A favourite among Czechs, Ota's stories about his childhood, his fishing rods, and sporting heroes have been turned into films on a number of occasions. I take a look at the sometimes troubled, thoroughly extraordinary life of the man behind the microphone.