Hruška Petr

Petr Hruška (b. 1964) is a poet and literary historian who lives in Ostrava. His poetry has won a number of state and international awards, including the Czech State Award for Literature in recognition of his collection Darmata (To No Travail, 2012), and the Magnesia Litera, the most prestigious annual literary award in the Czech Republic, for his newest collection, Spatřil jsem svou tvář (2022, English translation by Joshua Mensh: I Caught Sight of My Face, Kulturalis, 2024), an extended meditation on Magellan’s voyage around the world. (A German translation of this book by Martina Lisa is currently in preparation.) Selections from his work have also appeared in German translation: Jarek anrufen (edition Toni Pongratz 2008, trans. Reiner Kunze) and Irgendwohin nach Haus (edition Azur 2019, trans. Martina Lisa). He writes screenplays, publishes a literary magazine, co-organizes literary events and festivals, and participates in civic initiatives for environmental causes and the preservation of cultural monuments in his region. Hruška also writes short stories, columns, and essays, many of which are collected in V závalu (Cave-In, 2020). He works at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, specializing in poetry from the twentieth century to the present, and is the author of scholarly articles and books on Czech poetry.

Works translated into: English, French, German, Polish, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian and Bosnian.

Foto: Jan Bartoš