In the run-up to Christmas, writer Tomáš Hejna found a free moment for us. He is a talented, extremely hard-working and distinctive publicist. He is currently living his Christ years, so to speak, when at the age of thirty-three he is publishing his thirty-third publication.
Tomáš Hejna (born 1991) graduated from the Secondary School of Book Culture. He entered literature in 2011 with his poetry collection First flowers. Hejna has long been involved in the study of literary history, Czech and world history and personalities, and often collects legends and fables. His creative range is admirable. He writes both prose and non-fiction, focusing in his books on important events and significant places that are usually known only to a handful of insiders. But last but not least, he is also devoted to the media coverage of the association of wonderful people, carriers of good entertainment, from singers to humorists, the so-called entertainers under the banner of the ARTES Art Association. His paperbacks of the medallions and activities of ARTES members are always in the centre of readers' interest after their publication. It will certainly be no different with the publication that will diversify the pre-Christmas offer of our book market.
We want to know what it's called and what we can find in it...
Forgotten personalities of Czech entertainment art... (laughs) It's a very loose continuation of a series I started 12 years ago with a book called Forgotten Personalities of Czech Literature, and it's actually only the second episode after all this time, because I wasn't happy with the first one.
Artes and Tomas Hejna, how does that rhyme?
It dates back to 2016, when I was brought to Artes by its then chairman and my friend Václav Junek. We first collaborated on the publication of his book To die for the filmwhich I edited in Olympia, and in the following years we printed all the things for the Master. Then I became a member of the executive committee, and in 2021 I started a new magazine Forbina and together with cultural sociologist Václav Soldát we run an extensive website entertainment-artes.cz, which has over 700 posts about Czech actors, composers, writers, film, theatre, music, variety shows, etc. We have also published a series of books with Vasek and we are preparing another one.
Each year, Artes awards prizes to selected "entertainers" for their activities, popularity and lifetime endurance with humour on their lips.
That's right, the prize is called Master of the art of entertainment and this year the ninth edition took place, this time in Studio Ypsilon. This time it was a bit different, since February Tomáš Magnusek has been the head of Artes, with musician Vladimír Kopp, Petr Salava, Martin Dejdar, producer Marie Schillerová and economist Jana Jůnová. It's probably the best line-up since I joined Artes. For the last few years we were also the jury, but the other members gave us suggestions.
This year, for the first time, we awarded a prize in the junior category, to Štěpán Kozub, and in memoriam, which went to Vladimír Menšík's son. Other prizes went to Eva Hrušková, Jaroslav Suchánek, Zuzana Bubílková, Pavel Větrovec and Láďa Kerndl. He was probably the most happy about the prize, because even though he has been a singer for several decades, this is his first ever award.
The book will be published at the end of 2024, when we celebrated 70 years of the history of the leading Czech publishing house Olympia. You are currently the editor-in-chief of this legendary publishing house. How did you celebrate this unique anniversary?
After a year's break, we appeared at the World of Books fair in Prague with a brand new stand, the books from this year have a unique logotype on the posters, which shows that they were published at the time of our anniversary. On the Artes website, a series on the history of Olympia, which is also the basis of the book, has been published. 70 years of Olympia Publishing in a nutshell - available on our website. And finally, at the end of October we organized a really big two-day exhibition about our history in Velke Pripy, where many of our original employees and authors were present.
Conclusion: what will surprise us in 2025, both Artes and Olympia Publishing House?
I can't reveal Artes' name, but we will definitely meet our members and supporters again at a new place, we are already negotiating with the management of Fidlovačka. Together we are then preparing for the release of the first volume of the sequel Encyclopedia of Entertainment Art and with Václav Soldát we will be finishing a joint book on Czech and Czechoslovak film "firsts".
And Olympia is preparing a varied editorial plan, which should include a book about Avia, Small Encyclopedia of Czech History, a popular educational "dictionary" of Czech composers Conservatory of Europe, a new book by Martin Mahdal about the paratrooper Bublik and we hope to realize the long-planned project Atlas of Czech and Czechoslovak Industry.
As we mentioned in the introduction, Tomáš Hejna was born in 1991. He graduated from the Secondary School of Book Culture and entered literature with his first poetic work First Flowers in 2011. He writes both prose and factual literature. From his long list of published works, we can at least mention Semi-forgotten personalities of Czech literature, Fateful places of Prague, Premyslid Central Bohemia, Legends, myths from Okore to Vltava, then 50 attractions in Kralupsko, Slánsko and Kladno and other titles. More on www.iolympia.cz
Ivan Cerny
PHOTO - archive of Olympia Publishing House
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