Gerald Turner has been translating modern Czech and Slovak writing forover thirty years. Prior to 1990 he translated, under the pseudonym ofA. G. Brain, many banned authors, including V�clav Havel, Karel Pecka,and Ludv�k Vacul�k. His translations include Europeana by Patrik Ouredn�k, for which he received the US PEN Translation Award in 2004.
Patrik Ourednik was born in Prague, but immigrated to France in 1984 where he still lives. He is the author of eight books, including fiction, essays, and poems. He is also the Czech translator of novels, short stories, and plays from such writers as Francois Rabelais, Alfred Jarry, Raymond Queneau, Samuel Beckett, and Boris Vian. He has received a number of literary awards for his writing, including the Czech Literary Fund Award