Josef Straka: A hotel, church, city and country
– Czechia
Josef Straka was born in Jablonec nad Nisou in 1972. He has a degree in psychology from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. He had worked as a psychologist for a number of years (focusing on economic psychology and the psychology of labour and organisations) before his interests shifted towards literature: he has then worked as a magazine editor and a literary event organiser. He has moved from poetry to poetic prose and has recently published Cizí země (A Foreign Country, 2018), Malé exily (Little Exiles, 2014), Kostel v mlze (A Church in the Mist, 2008), Město Mons (The City of Mons, 2005) and Hotel Bristol (2004). He is an avid walker and observer, a post-avant-garde civilian, dreamer and a melancholic.