Zeno Kaprál: Insignificant Grace

Zeno Kaprál was born in Brno in 1941. Throughout his life, he worked in a number of professions (for instance as a driller, teacher, surveyor, fireman, librarian, reform school warden, dramaturge or editor), and in 1966–1995 was employed by one of the largest insurance companies in the Czech Republic. A poet, novelist, journalist and screenwriter, he debuted with a book of poetry, Ploty [Fences], in 1962. After 1989, this was followed by another fifteen collections of poetry, prose, essays and maxims (most recently Uvnitř, vně [Inside, Out], published in 2014). In his work, the writer ‘does not explain or describe; he puts things into your mind. Like Mallarmé, Kaprál too is fascinated by beauty. Clarity, he feels, is merely insignificant grace.’ (Pavel Řezníček).