Guests

Yurii Andrukhovych

Well-known Ukrainian poet, writer, translator, musician and performer, awarded with many literary prizes. Co-founder of the legendary Ukrainian literary group Bu-Ba-Bu. As a poet, he is known to Czech audiences for his collection Songs of the Dead Rooster, and as a novelist, primarily for the Moscoviad, a depiction of the collapse of the Empire. Its subtitle “a scary novel” has become eerily relevant in the recent years. The production of the Moscoviad at Theatre X10, directed by Dušan Pařízek, is now resonating in the Czech cultural space. Czech readers know his essayistic position from the book My Europe, which he wrote together with the Polish author Andrzej Stasiuk. At the festival he will present himself in a somewhat unconventional way, namely as a translator of Bruno Schulz. His new translations of The Cinnamon Shops and Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, together with his regular presence at SchulzFest in Drohobych, have introduced Schulz to a wider Ukrainian audience.

Benjamin Balint

American-Israeli journalist, writer and educator. He is a regular contributor to well renowned journals such as The Wall Street Journal, Die Zeit, Ha-aretz, The Weekly Standard or The Claremont Review of Books. He taught modern literature at Bard College in Jerusalem, at Freiburg University and also at Dartmouth College in the USA. Author of the book Kafkaʼs Last Trial: The Case of a Literary Legacy, which won the Sami Rohr Prize, and also the book Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History, for which he received the National Jewish Book Award. Both of these books address the fundamental question concerning who owns Franz Kafka and Bruno Schulz. Benjamin Balint will present them at the festival in a joint reading and also a panel discussion together with Magdaléna Platzová.

Otakar Blaha

An actor, interprets poetry and prose, works as an assistant director at the opera of the National Theatre Brno. Occasionally, he collaborates as a reciter with Czech Radio and also with musical ensembles such as the Brno Contemporary Orchestra, Ensemble Frizzante, and so on. At the festival, he will read from an exclusive bibliophile edition of Kafka’s book The Metamorphosis, published by Teapot. Not only it’s the oldest Czech translation, but it’s also adorned with unique lithographs created by Petr Nikl. This edition has received the Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year 2016 award and also the Fedrigoni Top Award 2019.

Blanka Činátlová

Bohemist, Culture Studies expert, editor, teacher. As a high school teacher at the Jan Kepler Gymnasium, she passed onto some Polonists her love of literature. As an assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, she specialises in the connection between central European literature, comparative studies and cultural anthropology. She works as a literary editor of the A2 cultural magazine and collaborates externally with Czech Radio 3 Vltava on the programmes named Kritický klub (Critical Club) and Slovo o literatuře (Word on Literature). She is also greatly influential in the juries of eminent literary prizes (Jiří Orten Prize, Magnesia Litera, State Prize for Literature of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic). Blanka Činátlová is the author of the inspiring monograph Příběh těla (The Story of the Body) and essayistic books named Odradky. Věc a věcnost v literatuře (Odradky. Matter and Materiality in Literature) or Tesilová kavalérie (Tesil Cavalry). At the festival she will give a lecture on Kafka and Schulz – the body as an epistemological metaphor of modernity.

Divadlo 3+kk

Niezależny, zaangażowany społecznie oraz krytycznie, profesjonalny teatr istniejący od 2020 roku. W swoich spektaklach porusza istotne pytania i problemy współczesnego świata. Artyści oraz twórcy współpracujący z tym teatrem dostrzegają, że obecny stan (nie tylko) czeskiego społeczeństwa ma swoje korzenie w nieodległej przeszłości, dlatego kładą nacisk na odzwierciedlanie czeskiego doświadczenia zbiorowego z totalitarnymi reżimami oraz podkreślają wagę ciągłej ochrony demokracji oraz praw człowieka. Twórcy badają graniczne formy teatru i jego możliwości jako instytucji społecznej oraz stwarzają możliwość kierowania i wzbogacania dyskusji społecznej. Podczas festiwalu Divadlo 3+kk przedstawi sztukę Franz Kafka žije: Žranice w reżyserii Adama Steinbauera według scenariusza reżysera oraz Libora Brzobohatého.

Hanele Palková

Poet and translator from Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish. Co-founder of the Friends of Bruno Schulz club and the Brno Reads Bruno festival. As an editor and translator, she has engaged in two issues of the Plav magazine – Kabinet múz Bruna Schulze (The Cabinet of Muses by Bruno Schulz) and Polské kresentimenty (Polish Cresentiments). From Polish she translated Knihu dopisů (The Book of Letters) by Bruno Schulz.

Libor Vacek

Radio editor, dramaturge and currently radio educator. For many years he was also lecturer of recitation workshops at the Šrámek Sobotka festival. Interpreting literary and journalistic texts has been his lifelong hobby as well as part of his professional work. At the festival he will perform Bruno Schulz’s short story Mannequins, newly translated by Hanele Palková, which was published in the Souvislosti revue.

Magdaléna Platzová

Writer, journalist, translator, author of theatre plays and children’s books. A woman of many talents: she worked as an editor at Literární noviny (Literary Newspaper) and Respekt, was an assistant of director Petr Lébl at Divadlo Na zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade) and also an actress in the Czech-French ensemble Divadlo na voru. She was influenced not only by the cultural background of her family (writer Eda Kriseová and documentary filmmaker Josef Platz), but also by her life abroad (New York, Sarajevo, Lyon). At the festival she will read from her book Život po Kafkovi (Life After Kafka), nominated for the Magnesia Litera Award.

Ondřej Nedorost & Dominika Kvardová

Flautist Ondřej Nedorost and harpist Dominika Kvardová have been a duo for over four years. During that time, they’ve had the opportunity to spread joy through their music in many places across the whole Czech Republic. Apart from solo recitals, they’ve performed at prestigious festivals (e.g. Smetana Litomyšl or Předehra (the Overture) of the National Theatre in Brno). They’ve also appeared at various openings, fashion shows, weddings, etc. Their repertoire can be characterised by a great variety of compositions. In their dramaturgy they usually give space to the less known, but all the more interesting pieces.

M.F.A. Dominika Weiss Hošková, Ph.D.

After her studies, she continued at the Prague Conservatory and had private lessons with Professor Miloš Sádlo at HAMU (The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Music and Dance Faculty). There she completed her master’s studies in the class led by her father, Associate Professor Jiří Hošek and then also a doctoral degree with her topic of choice Jewish religious motifs in works for cello. She has also studied in Paris and at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and has won many awards in the Czech Republic and abroad – in 2009 she was the absolute winner of The Strings competition in memory of David Gritz. In 2010, for her artistic activities she was awarded the Silver Medal of the Senate given by the Parliament of the Czech Republic for strengthening the reputation and spreading traditions of the Czech Republic in the State of Israel.

M.A. Jiří Hošek, Associate Professor

Studied cello at AMU (The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague) under Professor Miloš Sádlo. He has successfully participated in a number of international performance competitions, and has been improving his skills in masterclasses in Paris, Nice and Budapest. Between 1991–1996 he worked as a concertmaster of the cello section of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and since 1988 he has been a soloist there. Moreover, he was a laureate of the Prague Spring International Cello Competition 1980. From 1994 to 2014 he worked as an associate professor at HAMU (The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Music and Dance Faculty).

Zane Oborenko

Latvian visual artist and director, author of animated films characterized by her own unique approach to art in the form of sand animation. She studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Milan and later at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn under the guidance of Priit and Olga Pärn. Her graduation film IMG_00:01. JPG won the best student film award at the Fredrikstad Animation Festival. The main theme of her works is the existential conflict between the painful awareness of being alone on a deeply personal level and the emotional need for connection. At the festival she will present her latest animated film Kafka. In Love, based on Kafka’s love letters to Milena Jesenská, which is a product of Latvian-Czech co-production.

Zofia Ziemann

Translator from English, literary scholar and editor. She studied English and Cultural Studies at the University of Gdańsk and also Translation Studies with a specialization in Literary Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Editor of the magazines Przekładaniec, Pamiętnik Teatralny and Schulz/Forum. At the festival she will discuss English translations of Bruno Schulz.