Ivan Wernisch


Ivan Wernisch is a Czech poet, editor and a collage artist. He studied Ceramics Secondary school in Carlsbad and has since done many jobs, mostly manual. In 1961, after publishing his debut poetry book, he quickly established himself as one of the best and most loved writers of his generation. During the 70s and 80s he prepared many radio shows about famous poets of the world, but his books could not be published officially. After the Velvet revolution he worked in a newspaper. Now he works as an editor in the Current Czech Poetry Library. He is also a renowned translator from German, Dutch, Italian, Latin, French and Russian. His work as an editor is focused mainly on forgotten Czech poets of the last three centuries. Another Czech poet, Ewald Murrer, is his son. Ivan Wernisch lives in Prague.

Works

After his first couple of books, which were rather playful, his poetry began to turn into more dreamy and also absurd one. His poems, full of great imagery based on neologisms, absurd landscapes and mis-quoting other writers, become increasingly sad, if not tragic, with each new book since 1989. His influences include both dadaism and expressionism.
His books were published in translations in Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Poland and United States. He was awarded the Seifert Prize and Premio Capri.
Poetry
Editor of
  • Zapadlo slunce za dnem, který nebyl / Zapomenutí, opomíjení a opovrhovaní. Z jiné historie české literatury
  • Píseň o nosu / Zapomenutí, opomíjení a opovrhovaní. Z jiné historie novočeské literatury
  • Quodlibet aneb jak se komu co líbí
  • Kdo to čte, je prase
  • Živ jsem byl!
  • Nejlepší české básně 2013
For children
  • Střelnice
Books published abroad'