Tomáš Kafka - about the author

Tomáš Kafka
He graduated from The Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, majoring in Russian Studies and History. For a short time he worked at the Institute for Czech and World Literature of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, then in December 1990 he started to work for the Czechoslovak/Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As for his literary life, he is the founding member of the Quašňák creative association; he co-founded or ran samizdat magazines Dolmen and Quašňák, published several poetry collections in Czech (Gouaches, From the World and Rhymes in the Year) as well as in Macaronics (Fifty Shades of Kafka´s Rhymes), several one-act plays (Tragedy, Ice Floes with Karel, Ball Games), and cross-genre book My Hair on the River Missouri. Apart from that he published a number of translations especially from German (from poetry of H.M. Enzensberger, novels by Bernhard Schlink, comic books by Heinrich Hoffmann or Wilhelm Busch to plays by Werner Schwab, Klaus Marthaler or Thomas Brussig).
His first football one-act play Football Is Life was published in the World and Theatre Magazine. Later on, all his football one-act plays were adapted for Czech Radio, which produced them under the title Golden Goals. His one-act Brno 77 was produced as part of the scenic magazine RozRazil by Theatre on a String (today Goose on a String Theatre). In 2016 cooperated with theatre director Thomas Zielinski on penetrations between worlds of football and theatre: his translation of Thomas Burussig’s novel Referee Ready (Schiedsrichter Fertig) served as an inspiration for theatre performance. In the same year he appeared together with David Vávra as a guest performer at the concert of music band Poletíme? (or its reduced version – Perverted Duo), where they read several verses as well as football dialogues. In his free time, he publishes essays about politics and culture in Czech and foreign journals. He currently resides in Prague.
The World and Theatre Magazine published his plays Football that’s the Game (2005/1) and Habermas (Appendix Standa…, 2005). His text Marrital Scenes from Casablanca was submitted to the second year of Ferdinand Vaněk Award competition.