Bohumila Adamová (born 22 August 1981 in

Strakonice Strakonice (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Strakonice consists of eight municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Strakonice ...

), 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 (; ) is a town in Strakonice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,400 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, ...

, 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 Czech literature, literature in both its historic and present-day forms. The common Czech name for the field is ''bo ...

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

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

Institute of the Czech Language The Institute of the Czech Language (; 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 are in Prague and it has a branc ...

, 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 or nom-de-plume 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 name may be used to make the author's 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 literary award, book award held in the Czech Republic since 2002. The prize covers all literary genres in eight genre categories: prose, poetry, children's literature, children's book (since 2004), non-fiction, essay/jo ...

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 () 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 was established in 2006 by Wojc ...

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