Jan Novák: From Kolín to Kundera
– Czechia
Born in Kolín in 1953, Jan Novák fled to Austria with his parents in 1969 and has lived in the USA since 1970. He studied humanities at University of Chicago and is now a freelance writer. He has authored a number of theatrical plays, film screenplays, interviews and over ten books of prose. His most well-known works are the novel Zatím dobrý (So Far So Good, 2004) and the script for the comic book Zátopek: … když nemůžeš, tak přidej! (Zátopek: If You Can’t Go On, Try Harder!, 2016) and Zatím dobrý (So Far So Good, 2018; both with Jaromír 99) and fictionalised monographs of Miloš Forman (Co já vím?/What Do I Know?, 2013) and Milan Kundera (Kundera: Český život a doba/Kundera: A Czech Life and Era, 2020). Occasionally he also translates.