“Pain is a privilege of the living.” The Last Thing by Leopold Lahola, tr. by Julia and Peter Sherwood @karolinumpress.cuni.cz @juliasherwood.bsky.social
roughghosts.com/2025/10/30/p...

I'm blushing as I repost this generous words from someone I respect so much and who know the work in the Slovak original as well.

Congratulations to Ivan Štrpka, one of the most acclaimed Slovak poets - sadly, not yet known to Anglophone readers - for winning the 25th Golden Wreath at the 64th Struga Poetry Evenings festival in Ohrid (North Macedonia). svp.org.mk/en/poet/ivan....

Correction: @juliasherwood.bsky.social's translation of THE LAST THING will be published in 2025 (this year) by @karolinumpress.cuni.cz.

Slovak-Swiss writer Irena Brežná will discuss her views on immigration and the search for integration and resistance and talk about her book The Thankless Foreigner (trans. Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp) at @uclssees.bsky.social on 11 June, tickets www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-thankl...

Delighted to be in conversation with #NicolHochholczerová - @hatchards.bsky.social on Thurs 15 May, talking about her novel This Room Is Impossible To Eat, transl by @juliasherwood.bsky.social & Peter Sherwood and published by #ParthianBooks. All welcome.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening...

Come and join us at @uclssees.bsky.social on 6 May as we launch Nicol Hochholczerová's book and kick off her UK tour. If you miss us there, you can also catch Nicol in Oxford on 7 and 8 May, Crickhowell, Cardiff, Hay over the weekend, at Translated By, Bristol on 13 May and again in London on 15 May

Join us next week for this Study of Central Europe seminar with author Nicol Hochholczerová, who will discuss her debut novel 'This Room is Impossible to Eat'.

Translated by @juliasherwood.bsky.social and Peter Sherwood.

🗓️ 06 May at 6pm BST
📍 UCL SSEES
➡️ buff.ly/2uI5ZFJ

@peterzusi.bsky.social

Who would have thought that the first language Orwell's Animal Farm was ever translated into was Czech? It was published before Christmas 1946, sixteen months after the publication of the original. It was also the book's first illustrated edition. orwellsociety.com/animal-farm-...

The three editors of the first major history of Slovak literature to be published in ages will introduce their book at the Slovak Institute in London on 26 March. Everyone welcome though registration at si.london@mzv.sk. required.

A sneak peek (officially out from McGill-Queen's University Press on 4 March), this fantastic volume introduces the most interesting figures, genres and themes in Slovak writing in the context of recent political and cultural history from Stalinism through the fall of Communism to the present-day.

A special feature on Slovak literature coming out soon! www.parthianbooks.com/collections/... @isabeltranslates.bsky.social @parthianbooks.bsky.social

Two latest additions to Seagull Books' #SlovakList, both beautifully produced: Peter Macsovsky's Making Skeletons Dance (trans. John Minahane) and On the Threshold, selected short stories by the late Dušan Mitana (trans. Magdalena Mullek)

Katarína Kucbelová has won 2023 Tatra banka Foundation's prize for the arts in the literature category for her poetry collection "K bielej" (Towards Whitness), "a thoughful and careful exploration of existential issues of life and identity". tinyurl.com/2p9dcutv

Here's what's new in #SlovakLit in English in 2023 (and some bonus stats looking back at the past 23 years)

This lovely little anthology, just out from Comma Press, edited by Jan Zikmund and Ivana Myšková, will be launched at the the Czech Centre in London on 16 November at 19:00, with two of the authors and some of the translators in attendance. london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/t...

All your Czech lit lovers in London who didn't come to Torriano Meeting House on Monday, you missed a great evening with poets Milan Děžinský and Petr Hruška, the latter launching his new collection in English, trans. Jonathan Bolton, with publisher and poet Rob Mackenzie and Jan Zikmund

What better way to get started here than with the cover reveal of "The Bonnet" due out from Seagull Books in June 2024, with Irena Blühová's historic photo a perfect match for Katarína Kucbelová's writing