Literary critics discuss which of this year’s books are not to be missed and why. How do we narrate the self? How does our language change in relation to our traumas or our sensibilities? What makes the ethical limits of our stories shift? And what does the most latest Czech prose have to say about all of this? A debate regarding the new Literary Criticism Prize will seek answers.

Hosted by Blanka Činátlová.

Petr A. Bílek is a literary theorist and historian who has authored numerous professional publications and nearly fifty studies, some of which have also been published in English, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Croatian, and Japanese. He is a professor in the Department of Czech and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and the director of the Institute of Art and Culture Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. He contributes literary criticism to publications such as A2, Host, Respekt, and Aktuálně.cz.

Kryštof Eder is a literary critic and fiction editor for the publishing house Lidové noviny. He studied Czech literature at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, where he is now completing his PhD. He deals with, among other things, the specifics of Czech literary debuts. As a literary critic he contributes to the magazines Host and Reflex.

Jan M. Heller is a literary critic and publishing editor. He studied Czech language and comparative literature at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and evangelical theology at the Protestant Theological Faculty of the same university. He also pursued anthropology in the scope of his postgraduate studies. He engages in literary criticism, essay writing, journalism, and translation criticism. He is the director of the AMU Press in Prague, and since 2023 he has been the editor-in-chief of the biweekly Tvar.

Marta Ljubková is a dramaturge and literary and theatre critic. For many years she worked at the National Theatre as a dramaturge and then the chief dramaturge, and she currently works at the theatre Vzlet. She lectures in the Czech Republic and abroad and writes about contemporary Czech prose and drama. She occasionally publishes literary reviews in Souvislosti. She studied Czech language at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and dramaturgy at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at DAMU in Prague, where she now teaches.

Olga Pavlova is a publicist, translator, and literary scholar. She studied comparative literature at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, where she subsequently earned her PhD. She deals with dystopia in world literature, and she authored a book about the worlds of anti-utopian and dystopian literature. She has published articles in the magazines Plav, revue Prostor, Tvar, and A2.