Jaroslav Kovanda: Outside the Window Kovanda
– Czechia
Born in 1941 in Zlín, he is a poet, a novelist, a journalist, an author of children's books; a sculptor, a painter, and a draftsman. He completed his secondary education in Zlín (then known as communist Gottwaldov) and studied at the School of Applied Arts in Uherské Hradiště. Throughout his career, he has worked as a teacher, proofreader, stagehand, stoker, stage master and scenographer. From 1997 to 2006, he published and edited the magazine for contemporary poetry Psí víno, since 2012, he has been managing the e-magazine Herberk. He has published over twenty books, including Za oknem Erben (Outside the Window Is Erben, 1999), Žádný žebř (No Ladder, 2005),Gumový betlém (Rubber Nativity, 2010), Kufr z pískovce (Sandstone Suitcase, 2016), Moje přítelkyně žížala (My Friend the Earthworm, 2019), Cirkus Bruno (2019), Za oknem Mitterrand (Outside the Window Is Mitterrand, 2020), Spolhaus (2022), and most recently a comprehensive selection of his works titled Za oknem Kovanda (Outside the Window Is Kovanda, 2023).