Ivo Vodsed'álek

(b.1931 in Prague) completed secondary school in 1950 and then worked as a builder at construction sites in his home town and as a mechanic at the Nová hut’ Klementa Gottwalda steelworks in Ostrava. From 1953 he was employed as a designer in the Chemoprojekt state enterprise. From 1960 he initiated the renewal of balloon flying in Bohemia and later he became a certified pilot instructor. He retired in 1988.

He brought together his poetry and prose from the 1940s and 1950s in a private manuscript edition entitled Pulnoc [Midnight], which he edited at that time together with Egon Bondy. Although he also wrote during the following years, it was not until 1990 that he presented himself publicly as a writer. The five-volume Work of Ivo Vodsed’álek was published by the publishing house Prazská imaginace (1992); his essays, memoirs, and short stories from the 1990s came out in the book entitled Felixír zivota [Felixir of Life] (Host 2000). In 2004 Revolver Revue published his only known prose from the 1950s – Calvary and Compensation – as its 10th volume, entitled Two stories. In addition to writing, the author is also an active artist, focusing mainly on collages. He was awarded the Revolver Revue Award in 2006.