Jaroslav Rudiš: Sky and Night
– Czechia
Born in 1972 in Turnov, he studied German and History at the Faculty of Education at the Technical University of Liberec. He is a prose writer, scriptwriter, journalist, lyricist and musician. Writes in Czech and in German. He made his debut in 2002 with "a collection of rock stories from Berlin subway" titled Nebe pod Berlínem (Sky under Berlin). His latest works include the novel Winterbergova poslední cesta (Winterberg's Last Journey, 2021), the novella Trieste Centrale (2022), and the comic book Noční chodci (Night Walkers, 2022, with Nicolas Mahler). He's following in a tragigrotesque tradition of Bohumil Hrabal and Jaroslav Hašek. His works most frequently explore the Czech-German-Polish history from World War I to the present day. He has received numerous awards, including Jiří Orten Award (2002), Usedom Literary Prize (2014), Award of Literature Houses (2018), and Karel Čapek Prize (2022).