Zdena Salivarová

Zdena Salivarová (born October 21, 1933)^[1] is a Czech-born writer and translator living in Toronto, Canada. She founded a publishing house which published Czech works that had been banned in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

Biography

Salivarová was born in Prague and studied script-writing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. During the 1960s, Salivarová worked as a singer and actress. In 1968, she published a collection of short stories Pánská jízda.^[2]

Following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Salivarová emigrated with her husband Josef Škvorecký,^[3][4][5] firstly to the United States and then to Canada.^[3] They settled in Toronto in 1969.^[6]

Salivarová founded a Czech émigré publishing house in Toronto, 68 Publishers,^[6][3] which published Czech books that were banned in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic for over 20 years.^[7] This included works by Václav Havel, Milan Kundera, and Ludvík Vaculík and others.^[8] Salivarová and her husband wrote Samožerbuch (1977) about the history of the publishing house.^[2]

Salivarová received the Egon Hostovský Award in 1976. With her husband, she was named to the Order of the White Lion in 1990 for their work in promoting Czech literature.^[2]

Selected works[6]

• Honzlová (Summer in Prague), novel (1972)
• Nebe, peklo, ráj (Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down), novel (1976)

Filmography

• 1969 End of a Priest - Anna
• 1967 Mučedníci lásky
• 1966 A Report on the Party and the Guests