News
Yesterday, the winners of the most prestigious Czech literary award, the Magnesia Litera, were announced. The laurel for literature in translation was awarded to Jacek Dukaj’s novel Lód ("Ice"). The translation by Michala Benešová and Michael Alexa was supported by the Book Institute as part of the ©POLAND Translation Programme.
Alongside the novel Ice, the translation of Jaroslav Rudiš's Winterberg's Last Journey (translated by Michaela Škultéty) and Helen Oyeyemi's Gingerbread (translated by Petr Onufer) were also nominated.
The Magnesia Litera has been previously granted to a translator from the Polish language - in 2016, it was awarded to Iveta Mikešová for her Czech translation of Joanna Bator's Piaskowa góra (“Sandberg”).
All the winners can be found here: https://magnesia-litera.cz
In recent years, with the support of the ©Poland Translation Programme, Michael Alexa, has translated, among other titles, Morfina (“Morphine”) by Szczepan Twardoch (Host, Brno 2017), Jacek Dehnel's Lala (“Doll”, Větrné mlýny, Prague 2015), Adam Zagajewski's Powrót (“Return”, Protimluv, Ostrava 2016), Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki's Piosenka o zależnościach i uzależnieniach (“A Song on Dependencies and Addictions”, Promitluv, Ostrava 2018), Marek Bieńczyk’s Tworki (Pistorius & Olšanská, Przybram 2019), and, together with Jan Faber, Jakub Żulczyk’s Ślepnąc od świateł (“Blinded by the Lights”, Promitluv, Ostrawa 2020).
Michala Benešová, in turn, as part of the ©POLAND Translation Programme, also introduced Czech readers to the reportage Izrael już nie frunie (“Israel No Longer Flies”) and Irak. Piekło w raju (”Iraq. Hell in Paradise”) by Paweł Smoleński (2013 and 2015, both in tandem with Lucie Zakopalova), Toast za przodków (”A Toast To The Ancestors”) by Wojciech Górecki (2017), Sprawiedliwi zdrajcy. Sąsiedzi z Wołynia (”Righteous Traitors. Neighbours from Volhynia”) by Witold Szabłowski (2017), Modlitwa o deszcz (”Praying for Rain”) by Wojciech Jagielski (2018), Cwaniary (”The Hustlers”) by Sylwia Chutnik (2014), Niesamowite przygody dziesięciu skarpetek (czterech prawych i sześciu lewych) [”Amazing Adventures of Ten Socks (Four Right and Six Left)”] by Justyna Bednarek (2017), and Król (”The King of Warsaw”) by Szczepan Twardoch (2020).