Barbara Day
(Translator, Tomorrow) Barbara Day went to Prague to study theatre in the mid-1960s, after graduating in Drama from Manchester University.

In 1980, aware of the suppression of history in Communist Czechoslovakia, Day decided to write her PhD at Bristol University on Václav Havel’s theatre (the Balustrades). She subsequently worked for the Jan Hus Educational Foundation in its support of the “underground university.” After 1989 she helped to establish the JHEF as a Czech and Slovak Foundation, and wrote the book The Velvet Philosophers.

Day now lives in Prague, where she has established herself as a writer and translator. She has received the Commemorative Medal of President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel and been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her work for UK-Czech cultural relations.

Jitka Martinova
(Translator, Mountain Hotel) Born in Prague. 1968-1990 in the UK; BA Drama, University of Bristol. Translations and adaptations of the works of Václav Havel, Ivan Klima, Milan Kundera et al for the BBC-Radio 3. She now lives in Prague.

Jan Novák
(Translator, The Garden Party, Protest) Jan Novák was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. He was educated at the University of Chicago and has been making his living as a writer. In 2004, he was awarded the Czech Republic’s most prestigous prize, the Magnesia Litera, for So Far, So Good, Petrov, 2004. He has also won two Sandburg Prizes for Chicago’s Book of the Year (The Willys Dream Kit, Hartcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1985, fiction; Commies, Spooks, Gypsies, Crooks & Poets, Steerforth Press, 1995, non-fiction). Among his other books are a novel, The Grand Life, and the co-authored autobiography of Milos Forman, Turnaround, which was translated into sixteen languages.

Jan Novák has also collaborated on the screenplay for the Forman film Valmont and written the script for The Wonderful Years That Sucked, a comedy that was the top box office earner in the Czech Republic in 1997. His play Ax Murder in St. Petersburg was the finalist for the Slovak Play of the Year in 2001 and has been playing in the repertory of Bratislava s Astorka Theater ever since.

In recent years, Jan Novák has been shooting documentaries. He has co-authored and co-produced the feature-length films 3x12 (2004) and Citizen Václav Havel Goes on Vacation (2005).

Carol Rocamora
(Translator, A Butterfly on the Antenna, The Conspirators, An Evening With the Family, Mistake, Motormorphosis) Dr. Carol Rocamora is a teacher, translator, playwright and the author of the new biography “Acts of Courage: Václav Havel’s Life in the Theater” (Smith & Kraus, 2005). She currently teaches theater at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Department of Dramatic Writing. Her translations of the complete dramatic works of Anton Chekhov have been published in three volumes. Her new play, “I take your hand in mine,” based on the correspondence of Chekhov and Olga Knipper, premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London and has subsequently been produced at the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris and throughout Europe under the direction of Peter Brook. She has written about theater for The New York Times, The Nation, American Theater, and the London Guardian. She is currently working on a volume of translations of Václav Havel’s plays entitled “Havel Rediscovered,” to be published later this year.

Tomas Rychetsky
(Translator, A Butterfly on the Antenna, The Conspirators, An Evening With the Family, Mistake, Motormorphosis, Protest) Tomas Rychetsky is a novelist, playwright, and translator. His play The Innocent are Innocent received the Alfred Radok Award in Prague in 1997. He was the research assistant on the new biography “Acts of Courage: Václav Havel’s Life in the Theater,” written by Carol Rocamora. He is currently working on a volume of translations of Václav Havel’s plays with Dr. Rocamora entitled “Havel Rediscovered,” to be published later this year. He currently lives in Prague.

James Saunders
(Translator, Redevelopment) James Saunders (1925 – 2004) was considered one of the main British exponents of the Theatre of the Absurd. His plays include Next Time I’ll Sing To You, A Scent Of Flowers, The Travails Of Sancho Panza and Retreat.

Stepan Simek
(Translator, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration) A director, translator, adaptor, and a professor of theatre at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, over the past twenty years Stepan has directed more than 30 shows professionally and in College or University settings, translated plays from Czech, German, and French, adapted several novels, including Michael Bulghakov’s Heart of the Dog, Franz Kafka’s Amerika, and others for the stage, published articles on the post-communist Czech theatre in various journals, and taught number of theatre courses ranging from acting to theatre history and literature.

His translations and adaptations have been staged in New York, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, and San Francisco, and his translations of Petr Zelenka’s Theremin and Iva Volankova’s Three Sisters 2002.CZ received the 2006 PEN America Translation Award. Originally from Prague, he received his MFA in Directing from the University of Washington, and he was a Drama League of New York Directing Fellow.

Tom Stoppard
(Translator, Largo Desolato) was born in Zlin, Czechosolvakia. His work as a playwright has made him perhaps the most noted living playwright in the world. Some of his works include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Real Thing, Arcadia, the movie Shakespeare in Love, and the recent Rock 'n Roll, which was set in Prague and inspired by Václav Havel and the events of the Velvet Revolution.

Paul Wilson
(Translator, The Begar’s Opera, Guardian Angel and The Memo) Paul Wilson lived in Czechoslovakia for ten years, from 1967 to 1977, when he was expelled for his associations with The Plastic People of the Universe, a rock band with whom he played in the early 1970s. After his return to his native Canada, he translated the work of many modern Czech writers into English, including novels by Josef Skvorecky, Bohumil Hrabal, and Ivan Klima. He has translated several volumes of prose by the former Czech president, Václav Havel, including his letters from prison (Letters to Olga, 1988) and his presidential speeches (The Art of the Impossible, 1997). He has translated another play by Havel, The Beggar’s Opera. Wilson is also a journalist, editor, and writer. He has worked as a radio producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and has worked as an editor on several national Canadian general interest magazines. He has published an anthology of Czech short stories (Prague: A Traveller’s Literary Companion) and has co-authored a book on the Chechen hostage-taking incident in a Moscow theatre in 2002, Fifty-seven Hours. He is currently working on a translation of Václav Havel’s presidential memoirs.

Marie Winn
(Translator, Temptation and Redevelopment), a journalist, author, translator and birdwatcher, is known for her books and articles on the birds of Central Park, for her critical coverage of television, and her translations from Russian and Czech. Born in the Prague, she has lived in America most of her life and is an American citizen. Her book Red Tails in Love was adapted into the film The Pale Male.