Petr Hruška (poet)

Petr Hruška in 2010

Petr Hruška (born June 7, 1964) is a Czech poet, screenwriter, literary critic and academic.

Life

Hruška was born in Ostrava. He got an Ing. at VŠB (he specialised in water purification, 1987), MA at the Faculty of Arts of University of Ostrava (1990–94, thesis "Contemporary Czech subculture prose and poetry") and Ph.D. at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno ("Postwar surrealism and the reaction to the momentum of the avantgarde model in the official poetry", 2003). He works at the Department for Czech literature of AV ČR in Brno where he focuses on Czech post-1945 poetry. He co-authored the four-volume History of the Czech literature 1945 – 1989 (Dějiny české literatury 1945 – 1989), second volume of the Dictionary of Czech writers since 1945 (Slovníku českých spisovatelů od roku 1945), and Dictionary of Czech literary magazines, periodical anthologies and almanacs 1945 – 2000 (Slovník českých literárních časopisů, periodických literárních sborníků a almanachů 1945–2000).

He works also as a university lecturer of Czech literature at the Masaryk University and the University of Ostrava. He is a member of the body of editors of the magazine Host and an editor of the magazine Obrácená strana měsíce. Between 1995 – 1998 he participated in publishing the magazine Landek (with Jan Balabán and others). He co-organises literary evenings, festivals and exhibitions in Ostrava (e. g. – with Ivan Motýl – Literární harendy, 1992 – 1994 which were partly improvised literature, text-appeal and happening evenings[1]); he also acts in the cabaret of Jiří Surůvka.

His twin brother Pavel is a literary critic. Petr Hruška lives with his girlfriend Yvetta Ellerová (a singer and composer in groups Norská trojka, and Complotto) and their three children in Ostrava.

Works

Petr Hruška says: "Poetry is not a decoration of life". According to him, poetry must "excite, disturb, amaze, surprise, unsettle the reader, demolish the existing esthetic satisfactions and create new ones."[1] Described as the poet of unrest and hidden dangers in everyday life, he confronts readers with a world seemingly familiar, and yet surprising in its reality. Casual situations are the source of a subtle tension and deep, at first glance hardly noticeable meaning. He said in an interview: "I think that real grace and gracefulness appear only where all the gloominess, depression, and weariness of life, all the 'loneliness of the relationship' are somehow present as well. Only in the midst of that can a thin thread of light shine, a thin thread, which however contains all the fateful nearness that two people are capable of."[2]

Ivan Wernisch wrote about his books: "You manage to write poetry without unavailing things, that is, without lyrical babbling."[3] He is one of the most praised Czech poets of the post-1989 era.[4][5]

He publishes poetry in many magazines (Host, Tvar, Revolver Revue, Literární noviny, Souvislosti, Weles etc.), writes reviews for Tvar and the Czech radio station Vltava, and writes academic articles (for Host, Tvar, Slovenská literatúra, Protimluv, Obrácená strana měsíce etc.) His poems were translated into English, French, German, Slovenian, Dutch, Polish. In 1998 he was awarded the Dresdner Lyrikpreis.[6]

Poetry books

Poetry books abroad

Participation in anthologies (selection)

Czech:

Foreign:

Academic articles (selection)

Theatre and television

CD

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.radio.cz/cz/clanek/91712
  2. ↑ http://www.czlit.cz/main.php?author_id=81&pageid=34
  3. ↑ Zelený svetr, back flap
  4. ↑ Balaštík, M., Typologie nové básnické generace. Host 2, 1998, pp. 15–20
  5. ↑ Slívová, L.: Druhá polovina 90. let v české poezii 20. století se zaměřením na okruh básníků kolem časopisu Weles. Praha, Univerzita Karlova 2004. (A university thesis)
  6. ↑ http://www.dresdner-literaturbuero.de/lyrikpreis.asp

External links

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