Egon Hostovský

Egon Hostowsky (sometimes spelled "Hostovsky") was a major figure in Czech literature from the 1930s to the '60s. The youngest of eight children, he was born into a Jewish family in 1908 in the Bohemian village of Hronov. (His father was part owner of a small textile plant.) Hostowsky studied in Prague and later in Vienna, and became an editor at the Prague-based publishing company Melantrich in the early '30s. He also wrote his own books, including the novels Lost Shadow (1931) and The Arsonist (1935), for which he later received the Czechoslovak State Prize for Literature. He left Czechoslovakia in 1939, ostensibly to deliver a lecture in Brussels. Instead, he went to Paris and then New York, seeking a home far from the occupying Germans.

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Ladislav Klíma

Ladislav Klíma (August 8, 1878 – April 19, 1928), was a Czech philosopher and novelist influenced by George Berkeley, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His philosophy is referred to varyingly as existentialism and subjective idealism.
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Karel Poláček

Karel Poláček byl český spisovatel, humorista, novinář a filmový scenárista. Dílo K. Poláčka představuje jednu z nejvýznamnějších hodnot české meziválečné prózy. Ve svých humoristických románech se zaměřil na zobrazení tragikomedie maloměstského života.
Poláčkovy prózy lze rozdělit na humoristické a společensko-kritické. Snad nejúspěšnějším dílem je posmrtně vydaný příběh Petra Bajzy Bylo nás pět.
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Josef Kainar

Czech poet, translator, lyricist, dramatist, illustrator, musician and journalist. Member of poetry groups Skupina 42 and Ohnice.
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Jan Zahradníček

Jan Alois Zahradníček (17. ledna 1905, Mastník – 7. října 1960, Vlčatín) byl český básník, novinář, překladatel a spisovatel, jeden z nejvýznamnějších českých básníků 20. století a vrcholný představitel české katolické poezie. Ve čtyřicátých letech redigoval katolickou revue Akord.

Jeho otevřeně katolická a ostře protikomunistická tvorba jej přiváděla do ostrého konfliktu s levicovými autory, již před druhou světovou válkou se někteří z nich, jako například Jan Drda, vyjádřili, že Zahradníček musí po jejich vítězství za mříže. Po únorovém převratu byl nejprve vyloučen z Československého svazu spisovatelů a posléze odsouzen ve vykonstruovaném procesu k 13 letům vězení. Dlouhodobé a kruté věznění vedlo ke zhoršení jeho už tak trvale špatného z
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Jan Skácel

Jan Skácel was one of the best known Moravian poets of the 20th century.

He often juxtaposed the fear stoked by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and the highly free syntax of the Czech language. His poems are closely connected to the traditions and the nature of the region he lived in, Southern Moravia.

Skácel was the editor of Host do domu, an important magazine on literature, between 1963 and 1969.
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Richard Weiner

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See Similar Names for more information.

Richard Weiner was a Czech journalist and writer. He is generally considered to be one of the most important Czech writers of the twentieth century, since he influenced many of his own and later generations of writers. Yet he is little known outside the Czech Republic. Because of his enigmatic writings he has often been likened to Franz Kafka, although mutual influences can be ruled out with near certainty. He has been called "the poet of anxiety", others spoke of him as "the Odd-man out" of Czech literature. His contemporary Karel Čapek named him "the man of pain." -- Wikipedia
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Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera (1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. He went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.

Kundera wrote in Czech and French. He revises the French translations of all his books; people therefore consider these original works as not translations. He is best known for his novels, including The Joke (1967), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), all of which exhibit his extreme though often comical skepticism.
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Leonid Andreyev

Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (Russian: Леонид Николаевич Андреев; 1871-1919) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who led the Expressionist movement in the national literature. He was active between the revolution of 1905 and the Communist revolution which finally overthrew the Tsarist government. His first story published was About a Poor Student, a narrative based upon his own experiences. It was not, however, until Gorky discovered him by stories appearing in the Moscow Courier and elsewhere that Andreyevs literary career really began. His first collection of stories appeared in 1901, and sold a quarter-million copies in short time. He was hailed as a new star in Russia, where his name soon became a byword. He published his s
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Josef Škvorecký

Josef Škvorecký, CM was a Czech writer and publisher who spent much of his life in Canada. Škvorecký was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. By turns humorous, wise, eloquent and humanistic, Škvorecký's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.
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Bohumil Hrabal

Born in Brno-Židenice, Moravia, he lived briefly in Polná, but was raised in the Nymburk brewery as the manager's stepson.

Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on.

He worked as a manual laborer alongside Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, an experience which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing at the time.

His best known novels were Closely Watched Trains (1965) and I Served the King of England. In 1965 he bought a cottage in Kersko, which he used to visit till the end of his life, and where he kept cats ("kočenky").

He was a great storyteller; his popular pub was At the Golden Tiger (U zlatého tygra) on Husova Street in Prague, where he met
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Václav Havel

Václav Havel was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally. He received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award. He was also voted 4th in Prospect Magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals. He was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.

Beginning in the 1960s, his work turned to focus on the politics of Czechoslovaki
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Miroslav Holub

Scientist and poet
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Deborah Levy

Deborah Levy trained at Dartington College of Arts leaving in 1981 to write a number of plays, highly acclaimed for their "intellectual rigour, poetic fantasy and visual imagination", including PAX, HERESIES for the Royal Shakespeare Company, CLAM, CALL BLUE JANE, SHINY NYLON, HONEY BABY MIDDLE ENGLAND, PUSHING THE PRINCE INTO DENMARK and MACBETH-FALSE MEMORIES, some of which are published in LEVY: PLAYS 1 (Methuen)

Deborah wrote and published her first novel BEAUTIFUL MUTANTS (Vintage), when she was 27 years old. The experience of not having to give her words to a director, actors and designer to interpret, was so exhilarating, she wrote a few more. These include, SWALLOWING GEOGRAPHY, THE UNLOVED (Vintage) and BILLY and GIRL (Bloomsbury).
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Willem Frederik Hermans

Willem Frederik Hermans is one of the greatest post-war Dutch authors. Before devoting his entire life to writing, Hermans had been teaching Physical Geography at the University of Groningen for many years. He had already started writing and publishing in magazines at a young age. His polemic and provocative style led to a court case as early as 1952. His caustic pieces were compiled in Mandarijnen op zwavelzuur (Mandarines in Sulphuric Acid, 1963), which was reprinted with additions a number of times. It is Hermans’s belief that in order to survive people have to create their own reality. It is inevitable that all these experiences of reality will collide. Language is essential to create order out of chaos and plays an important role in th
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Olga Tokarczuk

Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland. She was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Polish female prose writer for "a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life".

For her novel Flights, Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Man Booker International Prize. For Flights and The Books of Jacob, she won the Nike Awards, Poland's top literary prize, among other accolades; she won the Nike audience award five times.

Her works have been translated into almost 40 languages, making her one of the most translated contemporary Polish writers. The
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Ladislav Klíma

Ladislav Klíma (August 8, 1878 – April 19, 1928), was a Czech philosopher and novelist influenced by George Berkeley, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His philosophy is referred to varyingly as existentialism and subjective idealism.
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Ladislav Fuks

Ladislav Fuks byl český prozaik, autor především psychologické prózy s tématem úzkosti člověka ohrožovaného nesvobodou a násilím. Jako symbol tohoto tématu si pak zvolil druhou světovou válku a holokaust. Většina jeho díla je autobiografická, často skrytě - téměř všemi jeho knihami prochází figura senzitivního, slabého hocha, žijícího ve svém vnitřním světě a toužícího po citovém přátelství. Právě tato stále se vracející postava trpícího a mučeného chlapce má silnou míru autobiografičnosti. Fuksovo dílo je někdy také autobiografickou travestií – např. Vévodkyně a kuchařka. Fuks je ve svém díle též mistrem masky, jinotajů a náznaků, k čemuž byl jako homosexuál přirozeně donucen dobou, v níž žil a tvořil. Ve svých knihách se také často dopouš
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Karel Čapek

Karel Čapek is one of the the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century. He wrote with intelligence and humour on a wide variety of subjects. His works are known for their interesting and precise descriptions of reality, and Čapek is renowned for his excellent work with the Czech language. His play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) first popularized the word "robot".

(Arabic: كارل تشابك) (Hebrew: קארל צ'אפק) (Japanese: 카렐 차페크) (Russian: Карел Чапек)
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Ivan Wernisch

Narodil se v hlavním městě Protektorátu Čechy a Morava. V matrice Pražského německého stavovského úřadu je zapsán jako Johann Wernisch. Dětství prožil na mnoha místech, byl městským i venkovským hochem. Čtyři roky studoval na Vyšší průmyslové škole keramické v Karlových Varech, pak vystřídal více než dvacet všemožných zaměstnání, nyní nedělá téměř nic. Až vyroste, bude námořníkem.
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Zdeněk Jirotka

Zdeněk Jirotka was born in Ostrava on January 7, 1911 and died in Prague on April 12, 2003.

After not finishing his studies at secondary school he served out as a bricklayer, later (1933) he graduated from building technical school in Hradec Králové.

After finishing the school he entered the Czechoslovak Army, where he served till 1940 as an infantry officer. Then he worked at the Ministry of public works and till the end of the WWII he made his living by literature. He worked as an editor of Lidové noviny (newspaper) from 1940 to 1945, then he became an editor of Svobodné noviny (newspaper), after 1951 he worked for two years for the humorous journal Dikobraz. Between 1953 and 1962 he worked in the Czechoslovak broadcast, from where he came
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Virginie Loveling

Virginie Loveling was een Vlaamse dichter en schrijfster. Zij was de jongere zuster van Rosalie Loveling en de tante van Cyriel Buysse.

Virginie Loveling in de Nederlandstalige Wikipedia

Virginie Loveling in de Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren

Virginie Loveling bij "Schrijversgewijs"

Virginie Loveling was a Flemish poet and writer. She was the younger sister of Rosalie Loveling and the aunt of Cyriel Buysse. In 1870, the two sisters published poems together which brought them instant recognition.

Virginie wrote poems, novellas, novels and journalistic prose.

Virginie Loveling in the English Wikipedia
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Josef Kainar

Czech poet, translator, lyricist, dramatist, illustrator, musician and journalist. Member of poetry groups Skupina 42 and Ohnice.
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Vladimír Körner

Novelist and screenwriter
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Jan Skácel

Jan Skácel was one of the best known Moravian poets of the 20th century.

He often juxtaposed the fear stoked by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and the highly free syntax of the Czech language. His poems are closely connected to the traditions and the nature of the region he lived in, Southern Moravia.

Skácel was the editor of Host do domu, an important magazine on literature, between 1963 and 1969.
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Gerwin van der Werf

Gerwin van der Werf (De Meern, 13 juni 1969) is schrijver, columnist/publicist bij Dagblad Trouw en muziekdocent. Hij publiceerde vier romans bij uitgeverij Atlas Contact: Gewapende Man (2010), Wild (2011, longlist Libris Literatuurprijs), Luchtvissers (2013) en Een Onbarmhartig Pad (2018). Ook verschenen er van hem twee bundels met columns en verhalen over het onderwijs: Schooldagen (2014) en Stampen en Zingen (2018)

Van der Werf won de eerste editie van de Turing Nationale Gedichtenwedstrijd in 2010 voor het gedicht Misbruik.
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Małgorzata Rejmer

Małgorzata (Margo) Rejmer, born in 1985 in Warsaw, is an award-winning Polish novelist, reporter, and writer of short stories. Her books, which have been translated into eight languages, include the novel Toximia (2009) and two works of nonfiction: Bucharest: Dust and Blood (2013), which won the Newsweek Award for best book of 2014, the Gryfia Literary Award, and the TVP Kultura Award, and Mud Sweeter than Honey (2018), for which she was was awarded the Polityka Passport, the most prestigious prize in Poland for emerging artists, as well as the Arkady Fiedler Award. She holds the title of the Young Ambassador of the Polish Language. She lives in Warsaw and Tirana.
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Ludvík Vaculík

Ludvík Vaculík was a Czech writer and journalist. He was born in Brumov, Moravian Wallachia. A prominent samizdat writer, he was best known as the author of the "Two Thousand Words" manifesto of June 1968.
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Jan Zahradníček

Jan Alois Zahradníček (17. ledna 1905, Mastník – 7. října 1960, Vlčatín) byl český básník, novinář, překladatel a spisovatel, jeden z nejvýznamnějších českých básníků 20. století a vrcholný představitel české katolické poezie. Ve čtyřicátých letech redigoval katolickou revue Akord.

Jeho otevřeně katolická a ostře protikomunistická tvorba jej přiváděla do ostrého konfliktu s levicovými autory, již před druhou světovou válkou se někteří z nich, jako například Jan Drda, vyjádřili, že Zahradníček musí po jejich vítězství za mříže. Po únorovém převratu byl nejprve vyloučen z Československého svazu spisovatelů a posléze odsouzen ve vykonstruovaném procesu k 13 letům vězení. Dlouhodobé a kruté věznění vedlo ke zhoršení jeho už tak trvale špatného z
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Viktorie Hanišová

Viktorie Hanišová (born 1980) debuted in 2015 with the well-received novel Anežka /Anežka, about the dysfunctional relationship of a mother and her adoptive daughter, concealed racism and stereotyping. Hanišová is a graduate in English and German from Charles University, Prague. She works as a translator and language teacher.

Viktorie Hanišová pochází z Prahy, na Univerzitě Karlově vystudovala anglistiku a germanistiku. Věnuje se překladatelství a je lektorkou cizích jazyků.
Spisovatelsky debutovala v roce 2015 příznivě přijatým románem Anežka o nefunkčním vztahu matky a adoptivní dcery, o skrytém rasismu a stereotypech. V roce 2018 následoval román Houbařka o dětském traumatu a domácím násilí. Román Rekonstrukce završuje volnou trilogii romá
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Jiří Kolář

Jiří Kolář was a Czech poet, writer, painter, translator from French, English and German, graphic designer. Member of poetry groups Skupina 42, Umělecké besedy and Křižovatka. His work was divided between literary and visual art.

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Miroslav Holub

Scientist and poet
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Ivan Olbracht

Ivan Olbracht, vlastním jménem Kamil Zeman, byl český spisovatel-prozaik, publicista, novinář a překladatel německé prózy, národní umělec.
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Jan Čep

He was born in 1902 in the village of Myslechovice near Olomouc to a family of peasants. After completing his studies at the Gymnasium in Litovel, from 1922 to 1926 he studied Czech, English and French linguistics at Prague University. In 1926, he joined Josef Florian's Christian community in Stará Říše and worked in its publishing house as a translator. But after he was seduced by Florian's elder sister, he returned to Prague and worked as a translator for the publishing houses Melantrich and Symposion. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, he returned to his native village and led a solitary life out of politics and public life. He only corresponded with his best friend, the poet Jan Zahradníček (their correspondence was publishe
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