AUTHOR
She studied Bohemia and German at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. In 1997 she received her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University for her thesis entitled Semiotic Problems of Dramatizations. Intersemiotic translation on examples of Czech dramatizations 20. century. The problem of intertextuality. She worked as a researcher at the Institute for Czech Literature of the CAS, and also as a lecturer and dramaturge at the Na Zábradlí Theatre. She has been a freelance writer since 2004.
She published a monograph on the theatre and film director Ewald Schorm Sám sobě nepřtelem (1998), a study Ohlédnutí za Milena Honzíkovou (2003; in: Letter to the Disappeared), and edited the anthology Zlatá šedesátá (2000). In 2005, her prose debut, And I Still Who’s Beating, was published. Her second novel, Hitler’s Money (2006), won the Magnesia Literatura for prose and other awards abroad: the Polish edition was nominated for the Angelus Prize (2009), the German edition Ein herrlicher Flecken Erde (DVA 2011) won the Usedomer Literaturpreis 2011 and the Georg-Dehio-Buchpreis 2012. Her novel monograph Death, You Will Not Be Afraid or The Story of Petr Lébl (2008) and her translation of Herta Müllerová’s book Rozhoupaný dech (2011) were also awarded the Magnesia Literary Prize. Her novel Kobold: The Excess of Tenderness / The Excess of People was published in 2011, and Contribution to the History of Joy in 2014. Based on the book MY 2 (2014), a film of the same name was made (directed by Slobodanka Radun, premiere: November 2014). For her novel Hours of Lead (2018) she received the Magnesia Litera for the fourth time, this time in the Book of the Year category. She was awarded the Swiss Spycher Literaturpreis Leuk Prize (2019) for her contribution to the history of joy.
Radka Denemarková’s works have been translated into 23 languages so far.
He lives in Prague with his daughter Ester and son Jan.
APPRECIATION
2022
The Literary Prize of Styria (Austria) for a Novel of Leaden Hours.
2019
The H.C. Artmann Scholarship in Salzburg, Austria (novel Contribution to the History of Joy).
2019
Magnesia Litera Book of the Year Award (novel Leaden Hours)
2019
Leuk Literature Prize, Switzerland
2017
Honorary Writer of the City of Graz Award 2017/2018, Austria
2016
WALD Press AWARD for a literary work that examines further possibilities of the novel form and at the same time bravely opens tabooed topics concerning the weaker and vulnerable
2012
Georg-Dehio-Buchpreis (Georg Dehio Prize), Germany, Berlin (novel Money from Hitler)
2012
Annual Mladá fronta Publishers Prize for the translation of Herta Müller’s book Heart of the Beast (Herztier)
2011
German Critics’ Prize Usedomer Literaturpreis (Usedom Literary Prize) (novel Money from Hitler)
2011
Magnesia Litera Award for best translation (Herta Müller: Unsteady Breath / Atemschaukel)
2009
Magnesia Litera Award for best book in the category of journalism (documentary novel Death, You Will Not Be Afraid or The Story of Petr Lébl)
2007
Magnesia Litera Award for the best prose of the year (novel Money from Hitler)
books
