Pavlína Juračková. Image: Paseka
By Jarosław Adamowksi | @JaroslawAdamows
Czechia Is Frankfurt’s 2026 Guest of Honor
Pavlína Juračková, the editor and foreign rights manager of the Czech publishing house Paseka in Prague, points first to the eclectic lists of the company’s output as part of its success.
“As the first independent Czech publishing house, established in 1989,” she says, ‘Paseka has been delivering works of fiction, history, social issues, comics, and children’s literature for more than 35 years. Our impact extends beyond the Czech cultural landscape, contributing to a global literary conversation, publishing each title guided by our conviction that books have the power to change the world for the better.”
Paseka is the Czech home of several major international authors, including Édouard Louis; Douglas Stuart; Fernanda Melchor; Alice Munro; Vladimir Nabokov; Amos Oz; Salman Rushdie; W. G. Sebald; Timothy Snyder; and Susan Sontag.
“Since its founding, Paseka has released at least 1,600 titles,” Juračková says, “with comics and graphic novels forming a notable part of our list. We’re the Czech publisher of Kazu Kibuishi; Luke Pearson; Liv Strömquist; Mariko Tamaki; Raina Telgemeier; and Tillie Walden. We also publish original, award-winning Czech graphic novels.”
“To be the guest of honor is, without a doubt, an opportunity,” Juračková says, referencing the dates and intents of next year’s guest of Honor at Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19, 2026) .
“If the selection of Czech literature is handled well and the best is put together, Czech literature can gain visibility, and newly established contacts can be maintained into the future.”
‘Whether a Book Succeeds Overseas’
“Here at Paseka,” Juračková says, we’ve been preparing for this for three years, and so far, it looks like we’ll truly be able to offer the crème de la crème of our output in German translation to the Czech organizers who are selecting who will attend the fair. In general, I can reveal that we’ve managed to maintain both genre diversity and inclusivity (male, female, gay voices), for both children and adult readers. And with a touch of comparative exaggeration, one might add that we are also in tune with the slogan of our upcoming program: Czechia: A Country on the Edge.
“In choosing a title, elements such as the personal preferences of a non-Czech editor, the profile of the publishing house, the theme and treatment of the book, as well as information on rights already sold, national literary prizes, translator reports, and even the availability of an audiobook, theatrical, or film adaptation can all play a role.”Pavlína Juračková
“Attentive readers of the first volume of Vojtěch Matocha’s ‘Prašinaz’ series may recall that one of the main characters, Jirka, says—in this mysterious ‘island’ at the center of the city—that he and En feel ‘like two castaways in the middle of a hostile, cold sea.’ The book is currently being prepared in German translation by Carl Hanser Verlag.”
Juračková concedes that working in markets outside her own can present issues. “The greatest obstacle is usually the language barrier,” she says. “An excerpt in English often isn’t enough to make the prose engaging. That’s why an important part of my work is the preparation of a detailed summary, a book synopsis, in which all the essentials are presented, from the plot to the motifs and main themes. Of course, the ideal solution would be a full English translation, but as promotional material, this is often unaffordable even for large publishers or agencies abroad.
“There are, however,” she says, “many other factors that influence whether a book succeeds overseas.
“Media coverage and domestic readership reception are only one of many aspects an international publisher may take into account. What works in our country may not resonate internationally at all. In choosing a title, elements such as the personal preferences of a non-Czech editor, the profile of the publishing house, the theme and treatment of the book, as well as information on rights already sold, national literary prizes, translator reports, and even the availability of an audiobook, theatrical, or film adaptation can all play a role.
“And last but not least,” Juračková, “there’s the possibility of grant support from the Czech ministry of culture. And this is only a fraction of the entire mosaic of decision-making criteria. It’s systematic work, but also something of an alchemy.”
Asked if any one genre of Czech literature seems to sell particularly well on international markets, Juračková says, “In my view, the greatest strength of a book often lies in the tension between the local and the universal message it conveys. Marek Torčík achieved this brilliantly in his novel Memory Burn, in which the local and universal levels intertwine naturally. For an international publisher, it’s precisely this duality that’s attractive: the distinctiveness of the Czech context on the one hand, and on the other, the themes that are universally comprehensible and transferable into another cultural provenance.
“I believe the key is not necessarily what you write about but how the narrative is shaped, and whether it succeeds in being approached comprehensively in all its aspects.
“I was very inspired,” she says, “by one Danish editor who, when asked what’s most important in choosing a title, answered with a single word: ‘complexity.’ Authors should not be afraid to be complex, and this, in my opinion, is precisely what Jonas Zbořil’s novella Flora achieves. Within a relatively short space, Jonas managed to capture a wide spectrum of themes: environmental issues, the roles in parenthood, infertility, life on urban peripheries, and the tension between wilderness and civilization—all rendered in a beautifully poetic language.
“As for comics,” Juračková says, “I believe the interest is growing every year. Young Czech comic authors and illustrators certainly have a lot to offer, both thematically and artistically. They’re original and unafraid to address fresh as well as previously taboo subjects, such as queerness, baldness, or toxic relationships. Several titles from Paseka are currently being prepared in German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, and other language. A clear proof of this trend is, for instance, the success of the US edition of the graphic novel Bald (2020) by Tereza Čechová and Štěpánka Jislová, which The Comics Journal ranked among the best comics of 2024. Or there’s the upcoming German or Italian edition of the debut graphic novel They Them (2023) by the artist Marto Kelbl.
“For the export of Czech literature abroad, indispensable partners include, above all, the domestic grant support provided by Prague’s ministry of culture, as well as the network of Czech Centers worldwide,” Juračková says. “Many international trips to European book fairs are also partly funded by CzechLit, which additionally offers residencies and other activities that complement the mosaic of support available to both foreign and Czech publishers and authors.”
And in terms of Paseka’s rights sales, the house “began to approach the sale of translation rights in a more systematic way in 2022,” she says, “and since then we have concluded more than 100 contracts. Our biggest literary gem so far is the novel Memory Burn (2023) by Marek Torčík, which has been sold into 27 languages. The first translations are being published this year, with further releases scheduled until 2027.
“Other titles from our list have also gained remarkable attention abroad, including the novel Flora (2024), already sold into 13 languages, with the first translations to appear this year; the children’s fiction Dustopia (2018), sold into 11 languages; and the graphic novel Heartcore (2023), which has already found rights buyers in 10 territories.”
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