Who´s afraid of Božena Němcová?

About books with Eva Soukeníková and Radka Denemarková

What connects Božena Němcová, George Sand and John D. Rockefeller? In her latest novel, Čokoládová krev (Chocolate Blood) (2023), Czech writer Radka Denemarková has created a multi-layered story that in individual episodes confronts three life stories reflecting the themes of freedom, power of money and social conventions. The themes that continue to resonate through the contemporary society even one hundred and fifty years later. The discussion about Chocolate Blood and other books will be led by the Czech Radio journalist Eva Soukeníková. She will talk about Božena Němcová, the female perspective, elusiveness of freedom and about sexualized violence. Those are the issues that Radka Denemarková has long been bringing up to the Czech literary environment.

Radka Denemarková (1968) is a Czech writer, literary historian, screenwriter and dramaturge. She studied German and Bohemian Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. She worked at the Institute for Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences and as a dramaturge she collaborated with the Prague theatre Na zábradlí. Since 2004 she has been a freelance writer. Her books have won four Magnesia litera awards for prose (Peníze od Hitlera, 2006 and Hodiny z olova, 2018); journalism (Smrt, nebudeš se báti aneb Příběh Petra Lébla, 2008) and for translation (Rozhoupaný dech, 2010). Her other books are also worthy of attention, including A já pořád kdo to tluče (2005) and her latest novel Čokoládová krev (Chocolate Blood, 2023). Her work has won numerous international awards, including the Styrian Literary Prize in 2022.

Eva Soukeníková (1992) is a Czech journalist. She studied French philology and media studies at the Charles University and Université de Montréal in Canada. She works as a political reporter for the Czech Radio and co-moderates a podcast called Lit on Radio Wave, dedicated to contemporary literature. She is a co-founder of the Women in Media platform and previously worked at Seznam Zprávy or as a freelance writer to the Reportér magazine.

The debate is a part of the Ženská práce (Women's Work) meeting series. The series is a part of the WOMENPEDIA project and the cultural and artistic program of České Budějovice 2028 – the European Capital of Culture.