Jakuba Katalpa
Jakuba Katalpa | |
|---|---|
Jakuba Katalpa in 2013. | |
| Born | Tereza Jandová 1979 Plzeň, Czechoslovakia |
| Alma mater | Charles University |
| Notable works | Němci |
Tereza Jandová (born 1979), known by her pen name Jakuba Katalpa, is a Czech writer, primarily of novels. She is best known for her Czech Book Award-winning novel Němci (2012), which examines the history of the Sudetenland through a woman's relationship with her grandmother.
Biography
Jakuba Katalpa was born Tereza Jandová in 1979 in Plzeň, in what was then Czechoslovakia.[1][2][3] She studied psychology, media studies, and Czech studies at Charles University in Prague, graduating in 2005.[3]
Jandová's first published work was the 2000 short story collection Krásné bolesti ("Lovely Pain"), followed by the collection Povídka beze jména ("Story Without a Name") in 2003. She subsequently began writing novels under the pen name Jakuba Katalpa.[1]
The first of these, the novella Je hlína k snědku? ("Can Mud Be Eaten?"), was published in 2006. It was shortlisted for the Magnesia Litera Discovery of the Year Award. She then wrote her first full-length novel, Hořké moře ("Bitter Sea"), in 2008. Perhaps her most personal work, it was shortlisted for the Jiří Orten Award for young writers.[1][2][4]
In 2012, Katalpa published Němci ("Germans"), which would become her most popular work.[2] Němci won the Czech Book Award and the Josef Škvorecký Award, and it was nominated for the Magnesia Litera Award for Prose.[1][5] It tells the story of a Czech woman living in London who travels to search for her estranged German grandmother.[5] While much of her earlier work was experimental, Němci is characterized by its realism.[2] The title, Němci, is the Czech word for "Germans," but the term derives from the word "mute," a reference to the tense silence around the Czech Republic's history with Germany.[5]
After writing the novel Doupě ("The Den") in 2017,[6] in 2020 Katalpa published the novel Zuzanin dech ("Zuzana's Breath"), which also deals with the tensions of life in the Sudetenland. It tells the story of the daughter of a Jewish sugar factory owner during the Holocaust.[4] In 2025, she published Úlice: Liebesroman, which is also set during World War II in the German-Czech borderlands.[7]
Selected works
Short stories
- Krásné bolesti (2000)
- Povídka beze jména (2003)
Novella
- Je hlína k snědku? (2003)
Novels
- Hořké moře (2008)
- Němci (2012)
- Doupě (2017)
- Zuzanin dech (2020)
- Úlice: Liebesroman (2025)
References
- ^ a b c d "Jakuba Katalpa". Words Without Borders. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ a b c d "Jakuba Katalpa". CzechLit. Archived from the original on 2024-03-28. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ a b "Jakuba Katalpa". MuseumsQuartier Wien. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ a b Kaňková, Markéta (2021-02-01). "Jakuba Katalpa: Vztahy Čechů a Němců? To téma v sobě mám zakódované. Dětství jsem strávila v Sudetech, i naše chata je po Němcích". Vltava (in Czech). Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ a b c Zucker, Alex; Sherwood, Julia (2017-05-11). "10 Books by Czech Women We'd Like to See in English". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ Zelinková, Lucie (2017-10-31). "RECENZE: Jakuba Katalpa předvedla mistrovskou práci". Novinky. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
- ^ Zlamalová, Erika (2025-04-23). "Doby, kdy mě mohli škrtem pera zničit pánové Chuchma či Horák, dávno minuly, říká spisovatelka Jakuba Katalpa". Deník N (in Czech). Retrieved 2025-05-05.