Zdena Zábranská, 82, died on 21 September. Photo Credit: MMB
Brno, Sept. 26 (BD) – On Wednesday, 21 September, acclaimed Czech poet and publisher Zdena Zábranská died at the age of 82. Zábranská was the longtime editor of the Brno publishing house Blok, and the 2015 winner of the Brno City Prize.
Zdena Zábranská was born in Uherské Hradiště on 1 September 1940. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Brno in Bohemian Studies and French. In 1983, she received her doctorate from the same institution. From 1963-1966 she taught at the grammar school in Slavkov u Brna.
From 1966, she worked as an editor at the Brno publishing house Blok, where she was responsible for publishing works by Oldřich Mikulášek, Jan Skácel and Bohuslav Reynek. She worked at the publishing house until her retirement in 1997.
Zábranská made her debut as a poet with the collection “Ani popel”, later followed by five more collections. The last one, published in 2010, is entitled “Nesnadnost”. She has also published her poems and translations of French poetry in a number of periodicals. She also contributed to samizdat collections published in the 1970s by Ludvík Kundera, and was an active member of the artistic association Q since its foundation in 1969.
Zdena Zábranská has strengthened Brno’s image as a recognized cultural centre through her editorial work and her own work, and as a result she was awarded the Brno City Prize for Literary Activity and Journalism in 2015.
Her funeral will take place on Thursday, 29 September at 12:30pm at the Brno Crematorium.
