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The Czech Centre London actively promotes the Czech Republic by showcasing Czech culture, innovations and creativity in the UK.
Episodes
Monday Nov 20, 2023
Monday Nov 20, 2023
The winner of two Magnesia Litera Awards Marek Šindelka, the book´s co-editor Jan Zikmund and writer Veronika Bendová launched an anthology of short stories by the ten of city´s most famous writers, including the illustrious Bohumil Hrabal, that present Prague in a completely new light. Away from the Old Town Square, these stories take us into less-visited corners of Prague: from the steep streets of the proudly edgy Žižkov neighbourhood, to the flood-ravished suburb of Karlín, from the tensions experienced by the city’s Romani community to the dehumanising post-war redevelopment of areas like Libeň proving that there are always sides to a city’s character you would never have imagined. A discussion chaired by Ra Page, editor in chief of Comma Press.
The Book of Prague
A City in Short Fiction
Edited by Ivana Myšková & Jan Zikmund
Published by: Comma Press
The book was published through the instigation and support of the Czech Literary Centre
Featuring: Bohumil Hrabal , Michal Ajvaz, Irena Dousková , Simona Bohatá , Jan Zábrana , Petr Borkovec , Marek Šindelka, Patrik Banga , Veronika Bendová & Marie Stryjová
Format: Paperback
Book type: Anthology
ISBN-13: 9781912697786
Published: 05 Oct 2023
https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-book-of-prague
About our guests
Veronika Bendová (1974) was born in Prague and has spent her whole life there. She studied film screenwriting and dramaturgy at the FAMU film academy in the city and has devoted most of her adult life to raising her five children. She made her literary debut in 2012 with the novel Nonstop Eufrat, which has been translated into Spanish. She followed this in 2019 with Vytěženej kraj (A Depleted Land), which was shortlisted for the prose category of the Magnesia Litera Award. She also occasionally publishes short stories. She currently works as an editor at the Twentieth Century Memorial Museum, an institution documenting and preserving the memory of regimes and events in the former Czechoslovakia.
Marek Šindelka (1984) studied Cultural Studies at Charles University in Prague and screenwriting at the FAMU film academy. His debut poetry collection, Strychnin a jiné básně (Strychnine and Other Poems, 2005), won the Jiří Orten Award for writers under thirty. His novels and short story collections have been translated into several languages, including English, French and Dutch, and have won two Magnesia Litera awards. The short story “Realities” featured in this book comes from his collection of interlinked short stories Mapa Anny (A Map of Anna, 2014).
Paul Kaye (1969) was born in Bolton in the UK, and after studying biology and French at university, moved to Bratislava, Slovakia, shortly after the break-up of Czechoslovakia. While teaching English he began picking up the local languages, later moving into radio journalism and translation. He then worked for a decade as an environment policy journalist in Brussels, where he lives and now works as a translator for the European Union.
Jan Zikmund (1992) works for the Czech Literary Centre where he is primarily responsible for the promotion of Czech literature in English-speaking countries. He is also an editor of the English-language literary magazine B O D Y. He is currently a member of the jury of the Magnesia Litera Award for Poetry, the most prestigious Czech literary award.
Ra Page (1972) is the CEO and Founder of Comma Press. He has edited over 20 anthologies, including The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories (Penguin, 1999), The New Uncanny (winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, 2008), and most recently Resist: Stories of Uprising (2019). He has coordinated a number of publisher development initiatives, including Literature Northwest (2004-2013), and the Northern Fiction Alliance (2016-present). He is a former journalist and has also worked as a producer and director on a number of short films. He read Physics at Balliol College, Oxford and has an MA in English from the University of Manchester. Ra has been recognised by the h100 Awards for the last two years running (2019/2020) for his contribution to the Publishing & Writing industry in the UK, and was included in The Bookseller 150 list in 2020, their annual guide to the book trade's most influential figures.
Organised in collaboration with the Czech Literary Centre
More info about upcoming events:
https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program
Thursday Sep 28, 2023
Thursday Sep 28, 2023
Our popular Women in Focus series is set to continue after the summer with a talk by the world-renowned, Czech-born architect Eva Jiřičná. During the talk Ms Jiřičná, who is best known for her shop interiors and residential projects, will discuss her signature glass staircases and the limits of structural engineering as well as her most recent projects and the need for sustainable architecture.
Furthermore, the talk will touch on the topics such as the importance of public spaces, green living and regeneration of city suburbs. Using her 50+ years experience in the field, Ms Jiřičná will compare how various challenges are approached in different parts of the world and she will give a brief overview of the changing tasks architects have faced in the last 40-50 years.
The final part of the evening will allow enough time for questions from the audience to open a lively discussion on architecture, urbanism, and beyond.
The event was chaired by Deyan Sudjic, writer and broadcaster specialising in design and architecture and former director of the Design Museum, London.
About Eva Jiřičná
Eva Jiřičná, a Czech born architect based in London since 1968, completed her architectural education at The Technical University in Prague where she qualified with a title of an Engineer-Architect and later on at The Academy of Fine Arts where she completed her Masters degree. After the Russian Invasion she remained in England - she worked on the Brighton Marina project and on Lloyd’s Building and started her own practice in 1982.
Eva became well known for the interiors of shops and residential projects and mainly glass staircases but also for her work at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Canada Water Bus Station, Leicester Library, Orangery at Prague’s Castle and many others. She opened with a Czech partner Petr Vágner another practice AI DESIGN in Prague in 1999, and completed many projects there including hotels, University buildings, Multipurpose Auditorium amongst others.
Eva has been appointed Professor and has a long teaching experience. She is a member of Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Designer for Industry, and an honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts. She has been awarded by CBE and received 11 honorary doctorates. Recently she has been awarded the Ambassador of the Czech Republic by the Czech Top 100 and Lifetime Achievement Medal by the London Design Festival.
More information about Czech Centre London events:
Monday Aug 21, 2023
Monday Aug 21, 2023
The Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic jointly invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic on August 20 and 21, 1968. The invasion ended Alexander Dubek's Prague Spring liberalization initiatives and reinforced the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia's authoritarian side.
In July this year we screened Reconstruction of Occupation, a masterful cinematic adventure of a truly forensic nature that uses newly-discovered footage to provide a unique perspective on the 1968 military invasion of Czechoslovakia and its aftermath.
We hope you'll enjoy this short reminder of consequences and historical insight by Czech Centre London director Přemysl Pela and Dr Thomas Lorman as they introduced screening of the documentary Reconstruction of Occupation on 17th July 2023 at the Czech Embassy Cinema, London.
Thomas Lorman is a lecturer (teaching) in central european history at UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) where he has been teaching and researching since 2010. His most recent publications are The Making of the Slovak People’s Party. Religion, Nationalism and the Culture War in Early 20th-Century Europe (Bloomsbury, 2020) and A History of the Hungarian Constitution: Law, Government and Political Culture in Central Europe (Bloomsbury, 2020) which he co-edited with Ferenc Hörcher. He also serves as editor of the journal Central Europe.
More information about Czech Centre London events:
Tuesday May 30, 2023
Tuesday May 30, 2023
The event took place on THU 25 MAY 2023 at the Czech Centre, Czech Embassy Cinema, Notting Hill, London
Kateřina Svitková, attacking midfielder playing for Chelsea FC, the top English FA WSL club, has made a remarkable international football career. She started at Slavia Prague, where she scored an impressive 188 goals in 177 appearances. She was top scorer in the Czech First Division in both the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons and has been named Czech Footballer of the Year a remarkable four times. As a 17 years old teenager, Kateřina made her senior debut for the Czech Republic national team and since then she has scored more than 40 goals in various competitions and qualifiers. In 2020 she moved to the Women's Super League when she signed for West Ham and then two years later for Chelsea. Kateřina will discuss the peaks of her amazing football career, how to deal with pressure in sport, and give aspiring footballers lots of tips and inspiration.
Followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
ABOUT KATEŘINA
Although Kateřina’s dog Buffon has not yet got used to the new place, Kateřina Svitková is very happy. She’s playing for Chelsea FC. The legendary club she's been a fan of since she was a little girl. In the realm of the European champions, where women's football is at its peak.
When Kateřina joined West Ham she performed a song by the famous Czech singer Marek Ztracený to introduce herself and to greet her new teammates. In Chelsea, she chose the everlasting anthem Wonderwall by Oasis. She wanted her teammates to join in and start with good vibes before the first training day. The Czech Republic international joined the Blues in July 2022 and scored her first goal for the club during their 8-0 win over Vllaznia in the Champions League group stages in October.
The discussion will be chaired by Miroslava Fousková
Miroslava Fousková is a professional football agent working under Sport Invest, the biggest agency in the Czech Republic. She held the role of team manager for seven years at SK Slavia Praha women and one year at the women's A team. Additionally, she has seven years of experience with the men's A team of SK Slavia Praha, and a single year as general secretary of the FK Jablonec men's team.
"Kateřina has developed really well over the past two years at West Ham. We've been watching her for some time and knew she'd offer the team a lot of quality in midfield and also wing-back too. She's really versatile and extremely driven and has a real love for Chelsea.’’ Emma Hayes (manager Chelsea F.C. Women)
"I am living my dream! I have wanted to play for this club my whole life having supported the team since childhood and I really appreciate this exciting opportunity.‘‘ Kateřina Svitková about Chelsea F.C. Women
Wednesday May 24, 2023
Wednesday May 24, 2023
A book launch and conversation with Kateřina Tučková and Dr Rajendra Chitnis
Kateřina Tučková is a leading Czech writer, playwright, art historian and curator. She has written four books published in twenty two languages. More than 300,000 copies of her books have been sold in the Czech Republic alone. Her novel Gerta / Vyhnání Gerty Schnirch won the Magnesia Litera Readers' award and was shortlisted for the Jiří Orten Prize and the Josef Škvorecký Prize in 2010. The Last Goddess / Žítkovské bohyně won the Josef Škvorecký Award and the Czech Bestseller Prize in 2012 and the Magnesia Litera Readers‘ Award and the Czech Book Prize Readers‘ Award in 2013. In 2017, she was given the Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Award by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and received the Premio Salerno Libro d’Europa. In 2022 Katerina Tučkova was awarded The State Prize for Literature for the novel Bílá Voda (The White Water). www.katerina-tuckova.cz
Rajendra Chitnis is associate professor of Czech at the University of Oxford. Alongside the books Literature in Post-Communist Russia and Eastern Europe, Vladislav Vančura: The Heart of the Czech Avant-garde and the edited volume Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations, he has published numerous studies about twentieth- and twenty-first-century Czech literature and contributed afterwords to English translations of novels by Antonín Bajaja, Jaroslav Durych, Viktor Dyk, Ladislav Fuks, Daniela Hodrová, Josef Jedlička and others.
Kateřina Tučková: The Last Goddess
Translated by Andrew Oakland
Published by Amazon Crossing, 2022
The book has been adapted for the stage by the Zlín City Theatre, the Brno City Theatre, and the Divadlo pod Palmovkou Theatre
Translated into twenty languages
Once upon a time, a group of women with extraordinary abilities lived high in the hills of the White Carpathians. They knew how to heal people and help them in misery, they knew how to cope with trouble, and they could see the future. The so-called Žítková goddesses passed down their abilities from generation to generation. Dora Idesová is the last member of their family. She did not learn their art, but studied ethnography and decided to write an extensive scientific study about them. In the late 1990s, she discovered an operative file on an “internal enemy of the state” – her aunt, goddess Surmena. The file was created by the StB (the State Security), and kept in the archives of the Ministry of the Interior. Dora discovers the fate of the women from the village of Žítková and is surprised to find out that although she did not become a goddess herself, she is also an integral part of the secret traditions.
“In The Last Goddess, Kateřina Tučková (…) shows her narrative skills, and we can only take off our hats to her skills. Not only did she choose an original topic, but she managed to combine fiction and reality in a clever, thrilling and believable way, to build rich characters, and to lead the complex saga with s twists all the way through to the end.” Jana Machalická / Lidové noviny