Olga Stehlíková

Olga Stehlíková works as a freelance writer, editor, and critic with a focus on contemporary Czech literature. She wrote more than a hundred interpretations of poetry collections for the program Jedna báseň (One Poem) of Czech Television - Art. She is the editor of Edice poezie (Poetry series) of Odeon publishing house, in which 15 volumes of poetry have been published so far. She founded the Ravt on-line magazine (www.itvar.cz/ravt), moderates literary programmes in Czech Broadcasting and works as a book editor. She has put together dozens of books of poetry and prose for various Czech publishing houses, and her poetry has appeared in many Czech and foreign literary magazines.

She is a holder of various awards and prizes: Prize for Literary Critic of the Year for her critical work Tvárnice /Cinder blocks/; the Magnesia Litera Book Prize for poetry for her debut Týdny /Weeks/. Besides, she is an author of a collection of short poems, Vejce /Eggs, 2017/, released in a unique arrangement along with an LP with Tomas Braun’s music; a book of poetry Vykřičník jak stožár /Exclamation Mark High as a Pole, 2018/, the environmentally ironic poem O čem mluví Matka, když mluví /What Mother Talks About When She Is Talking, 2021/. Her poems have been translated into fifteen languages. Her new collection of poems is Zpěv Sirén /The Songs of Sirens/ (2022). With the poet Milan Ohnisko, she wrote a collection of poems Za lyrický subjekt /In favour of a lyrical subject/ under the pseudonym Jaroslava Ovalská.

She published four awarded books for children which were included in the Best Children's Books Catalogue 2019, 2020 and 2021. A novel for children Kluci netančej /Boys do not dance, 2019/, the fairy tale Kařut a Řabach /2019/ was nominated for the Golden Ribbon Prize. Other works: book for children Já, člověk /Me, human/, the award-winning Mojenka /Mylene/ and Mehlo, Šika, Kňuba a Motora. Her newest book for the smallest kids is Výkladový slovník /Explanatory Dictionary/ (2023).