Svět knihy 2004

Bookworld Prague 2004 - 10th International Book Fair
6-9 May 2004

In May, Bookworld Prague, one of Europe’s most important book fairs, will celebrate its tenth anniversary by welcoming Ireland, Scotland and Wales as its guests of honour. Each of these three countries, which share Celtic roots, has a rich literary tradition and a distinctive, dynamic contemporary culture. A complex history of interaction and sometimes struggle with England and the English language has produced modern literatures in Irish, Scots, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh as well as English, with writers such as James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Hugh MacDiarmid and Dylan Thomas exerting a profound influence on twentieth-century literary modernism and issues of linguistic identity. Although the majority of these authors wrote in English, they might all have said, in the words of the Welsh poet R. S. Thomas , “Despite our speech we are not English”.

Among the twenty-five authors featured in the guest of honour programme are the Irish novelists Michael Collins , shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Keith Ridgeway , author of the celebrated novel The Long Falling ; and Hugo Hamilton , one of the authors of the collective humorous take on Dublin and its literary tradition Yeats Is Dead!, coming out in Czech translation. The Irish non-fiction writer Brian Keenan will present the Czech edition of An Evil Cradling, a dramatic and moving account of his four-year captivity in the hands of Islamic Jihad in Beirut. Poetry will be represented by John F. Deane, Peter Fallon and Moya Cannon from Ireland; the Belfast-based poet and musician Gearóid Mac Lochlainn ; and Kevin MacNeil from Scotland. The poet and Forward Prize winner Robert Minhinnick , already familiar to Czech audiences, will be joined from Wales by the country's most celebrated fiction writer, Emyr Humphreys , and rising young novelist Tristan Hughes . The Scottish prose writer Louise Welsh , New Welsh Review editor Francesca Rhydderch and Irish author Eilís Ní Dhuibhne will launch new anthologies of contemporary women’s writing from Ireland, Scotland and Wales in Czech translation.

The leading political and cultural analyst Neal Ascherson , former foreign correspondent with The Observer and author of the recent exploration of Scottish identity Stone Voices, will engage in a public debate about cultural identity and political exigency with Jan Morris from Wales, author of the Pax Britannica trilogy and consummate travel writer. They are joined by the distinguished scholar Declan Kiberd , whose seminal work Inventing Ireland: The Literature of the Modern Nation has forever changed perceptions of Ireland as a country defined by the English as, he says, ‘a laboratory in which to conduct experiments, and as a fantasy land in which to meet fairies and monsters.’

The guest of honour programme at Bookworld Prague is coordinated by Literature Across Frontiers in cooperation with the British Council in Prague, the Arts Councils of Ireland and Scotland, Wales Arts International, The Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism for Ireland 2004 Presidency of the European Union, Ireland Literature Exchange and Welsh Literature Abroad, the publishers’ associations of Ireland and Scotland and the Welsh Books Council.

Literature Across Frontiers is supported by the Culture 2000 programme of the European Commission.

Bookworld Prague 2004 - 10th International Book Fair 6-9 May 2004

Bookworld Prague 2004 - 10th International Book Fair
6-9 May 2004