Bohumila Adamová (born 22 August 1981 in

Strakonice Strakonice (; german: Strakonitz) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Strakonice is made up of town parts of Strakonice I and Strakonice II, and villages of Dražejov, ...

), known by her pen name Anna Bolavá, is a Czech writer and poet.

Life

Anna Bolavá was born in

in 1981, but she spent her childhood and youth in

Vodňany Vodňany (; german: Wodnian) is a town in Strakonice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,800 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone, Vodňan ...

, which inspired her in her further work. She finished high school in Vodňany, then completed studies in

Bohemistics Bohemistics, also known as Czech studies, is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates Czech language and literature in both its historic and present-day forms. The common Czech name for the field is ''bohemistika''. A res ...

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

in Prague. After finishing her education, she briefly worked at the

Institute of the Czech Language The Institute of the Czech Language ( cs, Ústav pro jazyk český, ''ÚJČ'') is a scientific institution dedicated to the study of the Czech language. It is one of the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Its headquarters ...

, then focused on working as an editor. She also contributed to such magazines as ''Tvar'' or ''Host''.

Career

Bohumila Adamová publishes books under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Anna Bolavá and debuted in 2013 with a poetry book called ''Černý rok''. Her first novel, ''Do tmy'' (2015), centers around a lonely herbalist, whose life – used to the rhythms of collecting and selling herbs – is disrupted by a progressing illness. The book was awarded with a

Magnesia Litera Magnesia Litera is an annual book award held in the Czech Republic since 2002. The prize covers all literary genres in eight genre categories: prose, poetry, children's book (since 2004), non-fiction, essay/journalism (since 2007), translation, pu ...

for prose and shortlisted for the Josef Škvorecký Award. In 2018, Polish translation of the novel written by Agata Wróbel was nominated for a

Gdynia Literary Prize Gdynia Literary Prize ( pl, Nagroda Literacka Gdynia) is a Polish literary prize, which is awarded annually to authors of the best books published in the previous year in the prose, poetry, essay and (since 2014) translation categories. It wa ...

. An excerpt of the original novel was chosen as the translation material for the third edition of the

Susanna Roth Susanna Roth (1950–1997) was a Swiss bohemist and literary translator. Career Susanna Roth studied Romance and Slavic philology in Zürich, Paris and Prague. From 1977 to 1982 she worked at the Slavic studies of the University of Zurich. In ...

Award – an international translation competition.

Published works

* 2013: ''Černý rok'' (poetry) * 2015: ''Do tmy'' * 2017: ''Ke dnu'' * 2020: ''Před povodní'' * 2022: ''Vypravěč''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolava, Anna 1981 births Living people People from Strakonice 21st-century Czech women writers Charles University alumni Czech women novelists Czech women poets 21st-century Czech poets 21st-century Czech novelists