International Book Fair Book World Prague 2013

International Book Fair Book World Prague 2013

Guest of Honor Slovakia

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Slovak and Czech are two Slavic languages that are very close and in everyday life, the Czechs and Slovaks have no problem to communicate with each other. However, if we want Slovak books to have a Czech readership, we need to translate them into Czech. Czech is the language in which most of Slovak translations appear; nevertheless, due to our mutual closeness, we would wish for a higher number. Being a guest of honor at an international book fair in the target country is an ideal instrument to increase the number of translated titles and to stimulate further translational activities. Slovakia held the guest of honor status at the Prague book fair during 16 - 19 May 2013. The Center of Information on Literature (LIC), on the authority of Ministry of Culture, was responsible for the preparations and complete realization of the event in cooperation with other organizations and CSOs. Aside from the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, the LIC and the International House of Art for Children Bibiana, these organizations participated in creating additional program content: The Film Institute, The Slovak Institute in Prague, The Night of Literature, Artforum, Theatre Viola, Fra, Anasoft Litera, The Independent Writers Club, The association of publishers and booksellers of THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC  the Czech PEN Club, The Theatre Institute and the Slovak-Czech Club, as well as other subjects.

 

The Concept of the Stand

The motto of Slovakia’s guest of honor status at the Prague book fair World Book was (Po)čítajte s nami! (Read with Us!). The author of the slogan was the writer, poet and essayist Daniel Hevier. The author of the graphic design and the exposition realization was the architect and head of the Graphic Design Department at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Pavol Choma. The subtle Slovak national stand with a clean design placed in the central hall of the Palace of Industry presented Slovak books on 100 square meters.

 

Program

LIC and its partners prepared over 60 events which took place at the book fair as well as outside of it and they brought more than 70 Slovak authors, illustrators, actors and musicians. Laureates and finalists of the most prominent Slovak literary award, Anasoft Litera, read at the book fair: Pavel Vilikovský, Balla, Marek Vadas, Monika Kompaníková, Pavol Rankov, Veronika Šikulová, Dušan Dušek, Peter Krištúfek, Juraj Šebesta, Silvester Lavrík, Daniel Hevier and the master of modern fairy tales Ján Uličiansky.

 

When preparing the events, the organizers were inspired by three important anniversaries:

- the centenary of the eminent Slovak author and dissident Dominik Tatarka,

- the 1150th anniversary of the Cyrilo-Metodian mission on the territory of Great Moravia,

- the equally important 20th anniversary of the origin of the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.

 

A rich children’s program was spread out into 4 days and included illustration workshops with Slovak illustrators on site, staged readings, screening of Slovak animated films, games and contests. Workshops dedicated to increasing the interest in books of young readers as well as exhibitions of awarded illustrations from the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava also took place. The Slovak program also toured numerous Prague theaters, clubs and literary cafés.

 

Translations into Czech

As the guest of honor, Slovakia presented 21 new translations of titles of Slovak authors.

1. Juraj Šebesta: Venussha (Ťažký týždeň) – Venusshe (Ťěžký týden)
2. Záviš Kalandra (pseud. Juraj Pokorný): Zvon slobody 1848 – Zvon svobody
3. Pavel Vilikovský: Pes na ceste – Pes na cestě
4. Juraj Šebo: Normálne 70. roky – Normální léta sedmdesátá
5. Jozef Leikert: Taký bol Ladislav Mňačko – Takový byl Ladislav Mňačko
6. Rudolf Sloboda: Ako som sa stal mudrcom – Jak jsem se stal mudrcem
7. Rudolf Sloboda: Rozum – Rozum
8. Lucia Piusi: Láska je sliepka – Láska je slepice
9. 6 x Slovensko. Antologie současné slovenské poezie
10. Michal Hvorecký: Dunaj v Amerike – Smrt na Dunaji
11. Ján Uličiansky: Analfabeta Negramotná – Analfabeta Negramotná
12. Dny procházejí městem. Antologie současných slovenských básníků (Ferenčuhová, Groch, Habaj, Hidvéghyová-Yung, Kucbelová, Luka, Ružičková, Solotruk, Šulej, Tomáš)
13. Pavol Rankov: Matky – Matky
14. Ján Hoštaj: Krátke prózy – Krátké prózy
15. Dušan Dušek: Pešo do neba – Pěšky do nebe
16. Juraj Šebo: Zlaté 60. roky – Zlatá léta šedesátá
17. Ján Uličiansky: Podivuhodné príbehy siedmych morí – Podivuhodné příběhy sedmi moří 
18. Barbora Škovierová: Pyžamový týždeň – Pyžamový týden (dvojjazyčne)
19. Ján Smrek: Bacardi – Bacardi (dvojjazyčne)
20. Laco Kerata: Zlý herec – Špatný herec 
21. Monika Kompaníková: Piata loď – Pátá loď

 

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