George Theiner Award 2017

The George Theiner Award was presented at the traditional ceremony held annually in May at the World of Books exhibition. The Award is made to a personality or institution that has made a significant contribution to the expansion and promotion of Czech literature outside the Czech Republic. The 2017 Award was made to the Netherlands translator, Bohemist and literary agent Edgar de Bruin, who for more than fifty years translated works of contemporary Czech literature into Dutch (Jáchym Topol, Patrik Ouředník, Marek Šindelka, Markéta Pilátová, Emil Hakl, Jan Balabán...) and who with his wife Magda de Bruin runs the Pluh literary agency which represents Czech authors abroad.

The Award Ceremony was moderated by the journalist and university lecturer David Vaughan, and Jáchym Topol read the laudatio. George Theiner’s son Pavel Theiner was present as sponsor and permanent honorary member of the award commission. A video of the ceremony, filmed for us by the journalist and documentary film maker Dominik Jůn, is accessible on our Youtube channel.

Past recipients of the George Theiner Award include Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz, Ruth Bondy, Paul Wilson, Andrzej Sławomir Jagodziński and Syarhey Smatrychenka.