The Jewish-Czech author Martin Vopěnka is one of the leading voices in world literature, writing ‘with a deft and compellingly simple control of sentences that is reminiscent of both Kafka and Kundera’ – Choice.
Martin Vopěnka was born in Prague in 1963. The son of the famous mathematician Petr Vopěnka, Martin studied Mathematics and Physics at the Czech Technical University in Prague, but was always intent on being a writer. His first novel, Kameny z hor (Rocks from the Mountains) recorded memories and emotions from a journey across the Romanian Carpathians. The themes explored in his books go beyond the local themes of much Czech literature. He views the contemporary world with caution, and contributes polemic articles to the national daily paper MF Dnes. In 2016 his Nová Planeta (New Planet) won the country’s premier Golden Ribbon Award.
Anna Bryson was
born in Birmingham in the UK in 1955. She studied modern history at Oxford
University, where she went on to obtain a DPhil in history (1984). Her history book, From Courtesy to Civility, Changing Codes of
Conduct in Early Modern England, was published by Oxford University Press
in 1998.
She was
appointed Lecturer in Intellectual History in the School of European Studies at
Sussex University in 1985,
where she developed an interest in East European and specifically Czech
culture. Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989 she spent a sabbatical in
Prague and in 1991 she decided to move there permanently.
From 1991 to
2010 she worked as an advisor and translator in the International Relations
Department at Charles University in Prague, and also lectured at the
Philosophical Faculty and Faculty of Social Sciences, as well as writing
occasional pieces on Czech life and culture in the British press. She also established a reputation
as a translator of academic articles and monographs in history, social sciences
and the arts. Her more recent book-length academic translations include
Miroslav Verner, Temple of the World:
Sanctuaries, Cults, and Mysteries of Ancient Egypt (2013) and Vaclav Houzvicka, Czechs
and Germans 1848-2004: The Sudeten Question and the Transformation of Central
Europe (2016).
In the field of
fiction, Anna Bryson translated the Czech novelist Martin Vopenka’s novel Ballad of Descent (1995, Northwestern
University Press 1995), and has continued to work with him over the years, for
example on extracts from his work for the Prague Writers’ Festival and most
recently his ecological fairy stories, Tales
from the Windy Mountains.
Since 2010 Anna
Bryson has worked as an entirely freelance translator, editor and writer. Her
work appears both under her maiden name and her married name Anna Bryson
Gustova.
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