A Day in Czechia
No, I haven’t been rushing off to Europe again. But I have recently had the pleasure of spending several hours on Czechian soil. Most countries in the world maintain an embassy in London, and the Czech Republic is no exception. I was fortunate enough to be their guest for an afternoon.
Each year the Frankfurt Book Fair chooses one country to be their Guest of Honour. That distinction will befall the Czechs in 2026 and they are determined to make the best of it. Consequently the Czech ministry of Culture has put some money into encouraging the translation of literature from Czech. Their primary target languages as German and English. This means that grants will be available.
The Czech Republic may not be top of your list when it comes to thinking of countries with a tradition of speculative fiction, but they do have a good claim to fame. Back in the early days of science fiction, before Hugo Gernsback introduced the genre to the USA, three names stand out. They are Jules Verne, HG Wells and Karel Capek. (I omit Mary Shelley here because, though she undoubtedly wrote science fiction, she was not recognised as a giant of the field until much more recently.)
Capek is most famous for his play, Rossum’s Universal Robots, though he credited his brother Josef with coining the word for an artificial being. He also wrote the novel, War with the Newts, and together with his brother the satirical play, The Life of the Insects. I had a small part in a production of the latter when I was at school.
No other Czech writer has stood out in the same way since, but that does not mean that there is no SF scene their country. I know of this partly from my translator friend, Isabel Stainsby, and also from Czech writers such as Lucie Lukačovičová and Julie Nováková. Isabel approached me at Worldcon regarding an epic fantasy series that she was working on, and which I am pleased to report has found a home with a bigger English language publisher. Lucie and I had a long chat at the Eurocon in Mariehamn, partly about some of her own work, and partly about an anthology she has a story in. Julie was busy promoting Czech SF&F at the recent Worldcon in Seattle.
The event in London was intended to introduce smaller UK presses to Czech publishers and agents. Wizard’s Tower was one of the British invitees, alongside companies such as Comma Press, Pushkin Press and And Other Stories, who regularly publish translated work. The comics field was presented by Paul Gravett, as one of the Czech companies had graphic novels to sell.
There were several books on offer at the event that I was interested in, though some of them were clearly outside my ability to handle. Chief amongst the latter was the Mycelium series, an 8-volume science fantasy saga set on a planet that uses mycelial technology. It sounds fascinating, and I’m hoping that I will be able to talk to the author, Vimla Kadlečková, to find out more about it. With any luck a bigger publisher will pick it up.
For obvious reasons I can tell you more about the books I did express an interest in. News will be released as and when any of it is firm. If anyone reading this is a publisher and wants to know more about the grants on offer, please do get in touch. Or come and talk to me at World Fantasy.