Dana Mojžíšová | archiv Českého centra Mezinárodního PEN klubu
The Czech PEN Club will celebrate its centenary in 2025. The jubilee year started with the presentation of the Karel Čapek Award, named after the club’s founder. On 13 February, this year’s laureate Tomáš Halík – a theologian, philosopher, religious scholar, sociologist, psychologist and writer – received the award for his philosophical work on humanism and his journalistic work based on the deep need for social dialogue. The award’s beneficiaries are traditionally the originators of significant literary works that promote and protect democratic and humanist values in the spirit of Čapek’s legacy. The gala event was also attended by Radek Novák, owner of the Euronova Group media group – one of the award partners, who delivered the opening address.
The PEN Club also commemorated the significant anniversary with a specialised conference entitled 100 Years of the PEN Club at the Institute for Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) under the auspices of Miloš Vystrčil, President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and with the participation of Senator Miroslava Němcová. The meeting was dedicated to a reflection on the role of the PEN Club over the past century and the search for its place within current cultural and political contexts. Among the speakers were lawyer and sociologist Jiří Přibáň, essayist and diplomat Václav Jamek, chairman of the PEN Club Ondřej Vaculík, Director Emeritus of the Karel Čapek Memorial Kristina Váňová, theatre scholar Vladimír Just, archivist Petr Kotyk, literary critic Vladimír Karfík, historian Eugenie Trützschler von Falkenstein and writer Jaroslav Rudiš.
The anniversary was also associated with an event entitled Tribute to Josef Čapek: Psáno do mraků (Written into the Clouds), commemorating the fate of the painter and writer who died in April 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The meeting with experts on, and admirers of, his work took place in April in cooperation with the Čapek Brothers Society, once again at the Institute for Czech Literature of the CAS. Experts on modern art, literary scholars and historians spoke about Josef Čapek.
In May, the Czech PEN Club presented a two-day programme at The World of Books international fair, featuring a number of author readings, presentations of new books and the traditional student workshop within the framework of the Václav Hraběta Hořovice Literary Competition, this time under the motto Seeking Hope in Literature.
This year’s autumn will bring, among other things, an event to commemorate the date of the 80th birthday of deceased literary scholar and Estonian supporter Vladimir Macura. His work will be presented in a programme entitled Dopijem a pudem (Let’s Finish our Drinks and Go). In November, the club will look back at the 140th anniversary of the birth of Josef Václav Sládek by hosting a literary evening bearing the difficult-to-translate title Nač tepeš, písni.
