Ghájath Almadhún: Poems About Death, Poems About Hope

Palestinian exile poet Ghájath Almadhún presents his work in the Czech Republic for the first time - in conversation with writer and journalist Jonáš Zbořil. The programme lasts 60 minutes and takes place in English.

Ghájath Almadhún was born in Damascus to parents who fled Ashkelon. In 2008 he left Syria for Sweden and now lives between Berlin and Stockholm. He is the author of five poetry collections translated into nearly thirty languages; alongside poetry, he creates experimental poetry films and collaborates with visual artists, musicians and researchers. His latest collection I Have Brought You a Severed Hand (2025), published in English and translated into German, Dutch, Portuguese and Norwegian, interweaves personal loss with histories of violence and displacement using surrealist imagery, irony and dark humour.

Jonáš Zbořil made his debut in 2013 with the poetry collection Podolí (nominated for the Jiří Orten Prize and Magnesia Litera in the Discovery of the Year category), followed by the collection Nová divočina (2020). In 2024 he published his prose debut Flora, a dystopian novella about parenthood and humanity's changing relationship with nature, whose translation rights were sold to nineteen languages. For many years he hosted the literary programme Liberatura on Radio Wave; since 2022 he has worked in the culture section of Seznam Zprávy, where he hosts the podcast Kulturák and publishes the newsletter Chlebíček. He studied Czech and English at the Faculty of Education of Charles University.