Viola Fischerová (October 18, 1935

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

– November 4, 2010

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

) was a Czech

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, and translator.

Life

Her father was Josef Ludvík Fischer; her half sister is Sylva Fischerová. She studied

Slavic studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or ...

at universities in

and

. She was a friend of

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

. In the 1960s, she worked as the literary editor of Czechoslovak Radio. In 1968, she went into exile with her future husband Karel Michal to Switzerland, where she studied German and history at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

and worked as a teacher. After the death of her husband in 1984, she went to Germany and worked with

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

. She remarried, to Josef Jedlička, and lived in Prague. Her first collection of poetry could not come out in 1957, thus her official poetic debut was in 1993, with the collection of poems ''Requiem for Pavel Buksa.''

Awards

She won the 2006 Dresden Lyric Prize for her book ''Nyní'' in German translation; the 2006 Czech Children's Book of the Year for ''Co vyprávěla dlouhá chvíle''; and the 2010 Czech Poetry Book of the Year, for ''Domek na vinici''.

Works

*''Zádušní básně za Pavla Buksu (Requiem for Pavel Buksa)'', Petrov, 1993 *''Babí hodina (Old Women’s Hour)'', Nakladatelství Franze Kafky, 1995 *''Jak pápěří (Like a Feather)'', Artforum - Jazzová sekce, 1995, *''Odrostlá blízkost (Grown Proximity)'', Petrov, 1996, *''Divoká dráha domovů (Wild Track of Homes)'', Torst, 1998, *''Matečná samota (Mother Solitude)'', Petrov, 2002, *''Nyní: Praha-Elba-Praha 2002-2003 (Now)'', Petrov, 2004, *''Co vyprávěla dlouhá chvíle (What the Boredom Told)'', Meander, 2005, *''Předkonec (Preliminary Ending),'' Agite/Fra, 2007, *''Písečné dítě (Sand Child)'', Agite/Fra, 2007, *''Domek na vinici (A Little House at the Vineyard),'' Agite/Fra, 2009,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischerova, Viola 1935 births 2010 deaths Czech poets Czech women writers Writers from Brno University of Basel alumni Czech expatriates in Switzerland 20th-century Czech poets 20th-century women writers