{"id":22445,"date":"2012-04-13T19:05:06","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T19:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=22445"},"modified":"2012-04-13T19:05:06","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T19:05:06","slug":"black-czech-writer-zmeskal-won-eu-prize-for-literature-in-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=22445","title":{"rendered":"Black Czech writer Zme\u0161kal won EU Prize for Literature in 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black Czech writer Zme\u0161kal won EU Prize for Literature in 2011<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Afro-Europe<\/a>
\n2012-04-08<\/p>\n

Czech writer Tom\u00e1\u0161 Zme\u0161kal<\/a>, who was born as the son of a Congolese father and a Czech mother in Prague, won the European Union Prize for Literature in 2011 for his debut novel \u201cLove Letter in Cuneiform Script\u201d (Milostn\u00fd Dopis Kl\u00ednov\u00fdm P\u00edsmem) set in post-war Czechoslovakia through the collapse of communism.<\/p>\n

He was one of 12 winners of the prize, which recognizes the best new or emerging authors in the European Union.<\/p>\n

Zme\u0161kal\u2019s novel “\u017divotopis \u010dernob\u00edl\u00e9ho jehn\u011bte”\u00a0 (“The Biography of the Black and White Lamb”) of 2009, written long before his debut was published, is the first novel in Czech language dealing with the experience of Africans in the communist countries in Eastern Europe. It is the childhood and youth story of twins, who do not know their ethnically mixed parents and grow in their grandmother\u2019s house. In spite of her attempts to protect them, they suffer from the racism and hostility that surrounds them. Which is all the more absurd since the society, in which they live, officially encourages internationalist attitudes and an understanding among nations…<\/p>\n