Jan Skácel was a Czech poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 of Moravian

Moravians (ethnic group)

Moravians are the modern West Slavic inhabitants of the historical land of Moravia, the easternmost part of the Czech Republic, which includes the Moravian Slovakia. They speak the two main groups of Moravian dialects , the transitional Bohemian-Moravian dialect subgroup and standard Czech...

 origin, widely acclaimed as one of the best poets who had been writing in Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

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He often juxtaposed the fear stoked by the communist

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 regime in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and the highly free syntax of Czech language. His poems are closely connected to the traditions and the nature of the region he lived in, Southern Moravia.

His poems were mentioned in the book Ignorance written by Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...

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Skácel was the editor of Host do domu, an important literary magazine

Literary magazine

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

 between 1963 and 1969. He was awarded the German international literary Petrarca-Preis

Petrarca-Preis

Petrarca-Preis is a European literary award named after the Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch. It was founded in 1975 by German art historian and publisher Hubert Burda, and is primarily designed for contemporary European poets, but also epicists appear in the list of...

 in 1989

1989 in literature

The year 1989 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* February 24 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini places a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.-Literature:...

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Poetry

• Kolik příležitostí má růže Prague, 1957 (How many chances the rose has)
• Co zbylo z anděla Prague, 1960 (What remained of angel)
• Hodina mezi psem a vlkem Prague, 1962 (An hour between dog and wolf)
• Smuténka Prague, 1965 (title is neologism with root "smutný" = sad, it associates botanic name)
• Vítr jménem Jaromír Prague, 1966 (Wind called Jaromír)
• Metličky Prague, 1968 (Little whisks)
• Tratidla Brno, 1974 (neologism with root "tratit" = to lose, it associates toponyme)
• Dávné proso Brno, 1981 (Ancient Millet)
• Naděje s bukovými křídly Prague, 1983 (Hope with Wings of Beech)
• Odlévání do ztraceného vosku Brno, 1984 (Lost-wax casting)
• Kdo pije potmě víno Brno, 1988 (Drinker of wine in the dark)
• A znovu láska Brno, 1991 (Love again)

Prose

• Jedenáctý bílý kůň Brno 1966 (The eleventh white horse)
• Třináctý černý kůň Brno 1993 (The thirteenth black horse)