Alex Zucker
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TOMÁŠ ZMEŠKAL was born in Prague to a Czech mother and a Congolese father. In 1987 he left Czechoslovakia to live in London, where he studied English language and literature at King’s College, University of London. He returned to Prague after the collapse of communism, in the 1990s, and since then has worked mainly as a writer, a university and high school teacher of the English language and contemporary English and American literature, and a teacher of creative writing. He has published two novels, one work of literary nonfiction, radio plays, and short stories. His works have been translated into nine languages. He is active in the Czech PEN Club and is a cofounder of the Czech Writers Association. Apart from writing, he paints. His debut novel, Milostný dopis klínovým písmem (Love Letter in Cuneiform), won the Josef Škvorecký Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature. His second novel, Životopis černobílého jehněte (Biography of a black-and-white lamb), was shortlisted for the Josef Škvorecký Prize. His most recent book, Sokrates na rovníku: Rodinné reportáže (Socrates at the equator: Family reportages), is a work of literary nonfiction about his search for his father.
ALEX ZUCKER has translated novels by Jáchym Topol, Petra Hůlová, Patrik Ouředník, and Heda Margolius Kovály. From 1990 to 1995 he lived in Prague, working for the Czechoslovak News Agency and Prognosis, the country’s first English-language newspaper. In 2014 he was commissioned to create new subtitles for Closely Watched Trains, the 1966 Czechoslovak New Wave classic based on the Bohumil Hrabal novella. His essay “O Pioneer! Michael Henry Heim and the Politics of Czech Literature in English Translation” appeared in The Man Between: Michael Henry Heim and a Life in Translation (Open Letter). In addition to his translation work, he coedited the volume Reconstructing Atrocity Prevention (Cambridge University Press). Among the honors he has received are an English PEN Writing in Translation Award, an NEA Literature Fellowship, and the ALTA National Translation Award. He currently serves as cochair of the PEN America Translation Committee.