Yann Martel on Prague Writers´Festival
The Festival dates from Keats House, London 1980, when with "Index on Censorship" through the Helsinki Accords we brought vital authors from Central and Eastern Europe to the attention of the public. As Herzen noted: "Fish were born to fly, yet everywhere they swim." Fortunately in 1991, we could fly east and bring outstanding authors to Prague. In 1997, the Festival became a Czech cultural foundation.
The doors were opened and have remained open at the Viola Theatre, Franz Kafka Centre, the Celetná Theatre, Studio Ypsilon, and the Theatre Minor where the Festival has encamped over the years -- where Prague has witnessed great writers and the art of literature: David Albahari, Marigo Alexopoulou, Martin Amis, Homero Aridjis, António Franco Alexandre, Aharon Appelfeld, Margaret Atwood, Biyi Bandele, John Banville, Julian Barnes, Ivan Binar, Robert Bly, Yves Bonnefoy, André du Bouchet, Vlasta Brtníková, John Calder, Roberto Calasso, Orly Castel-Bloom, Robert Creeley, Veroniki Dalakoura, Bei Dao, Peter Demetz, Albert Dichy, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Mircea Dinescu, E.L. Doctorow, Duo Duo, Paul Durcan, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Victor Erofeyev, Péter Esterházy, Per Olov Enquist, Jeffrey Eugenides, Lilian Faschinger, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Sylva Fischerová, Viola Fischerová, Isabel Fonseca, Richard Ford, Antonia Fraser, Katarina Frostenson, Rhea Galanaki, Janice Galloway, Nadine Gordimer, David Grossman, Jiří Gruša, Norbert Gstrein, Erich Hackl, Miklós Haraszti, Míla Haugová, Dermot Healy, Daniela Hodrová, Michael Hofmann, Miroslav Holub, Michel Houellebecq, Dimitris Houliarakis, Bohumil Hrabal, Peter Huemer, Robert Irwin, Václav Jamek, Zoë Jenny, Ján Johanides, Roland Jooris, Lidia Jorge, Nuno Júdice, Peter Stephan Jungk, Panos Karnezis, James Kelman, Etgar Keret, Ryszard Krynicki, György Konrád, Menis Koumandareas, Hanna Krall, Eda Kriseová, Agota Kristof, Jiří Kubéna, Irving Layton, Antonín Liehm, Elmore Leonard, Christopher Logue, Arnošt Lustig, Patrick McCabe, Ian McEwan, Norman Manea, Claudio Magris, David Malouf, Dacia Maraini, Michael March, Juan Marsé, Yann Martel, Robert Menasse, Anne Michaels, Amanda Michalopoulos, Dušan Mitana, Anna Mitgutsch, Frank Moorhouse, Sławomir Mrożek, Herta Müller, Yi Mun-yol, Adolf Muschg, James Naughton, Josef Nesvadba, Lyubomir Nikolov, Dimitris Nollas, Edna O'Brien, Timothy O´Grady, Amos Oz, Nikos Panayotopoulos, Vladimír Páral, Brian Patten, Erica Pedretti, György Petri, Jerzy Pilch, Harold Pinter, Ishmael Reed, Elisabeth Reichart, Sylvie Richterová, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Peter Rosei, Daniel de Roulet, Arundhati Roy, Paul-Eerik Rummo, Eva Runefelt, Salman Rushdie, Ed Sanders, José Saramago, Evelyn Schlag, Peter Schneider, Raoul Schrott, Ingo Schulze, W.G. Sebald, Susan Sontag, Marin Sorescu, Andrzej Sosnowski, Ersi Sotiropoulos, Márcio Souza, Andrzej Stasiuk, Gary Shteyngart, Robert Stone, William Styron, Andrzej Szsczypiorski, Martin M. Šimečka, Josef Škvorecký, Petros Tatsopoulos, Paulo Teixeira, D.M. Thomas, R.S. Thomas, Colm Tólbín, Miloslav Topinka, Jáchym Topol, Josef Topol, Günter Traxler, Ko Un, Ludvík Vaculík, Spiros Vergos, Gore Vidal, Michal Viewegh, Pavel Vilikovský, William T. Vollmann, Irvine Welsh, Gōzō & Marilya Yoshimasu, Hugo Young, Gary Younge, Natan Zach, Zinovy Zinik, Rui Zink.
And so the Festival lives on.
Tags: Yann Martel Prague Writer Festival pi
