Copyrights Jan Bartónek
Author
Dora Kaprálová born 1975 in Brno, Czech Republic) is a Berlin-based writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker who writes in the Czech language. She is a recipient of the German-Czech Milena Jesenská Prize and the German-Czech Journalism Prize. Her books for both adults and children have received numerous awards, most recently the 2024 prize for the best independent book in Bavaria.
As a child, she performed at the Husa na provázku Theater (then known as Divadlo na provázku) in legendary productions directed by Peter Scherhaufer. With her prose debut Zimní kniha o lásce (Winter Book of Love) in 2014, she achieved a breakthrough with a distinct style characterized by doubt and irony. She often examines everyday romantic events from unusual perspectives that lead to broader feminist-philosophical questions.
She dedicated The Winter Book of Love to Péter Esterházy and his novel She Loves Me. As the 2014 edition is out of print, a second, revised edition is being released in 2024 by the Druhé Město publishing house. That same year, it was published in Berlin by Mikrotext Verlag (translated by Nataša von Kopp). In the autumn of 2023, a play based on four of Kaprálová’s prose books was staged at the Husa na provázku Theater in Brno, directed by Kamila Polívková. In March 2025, the play Mr. Nobody and the White Darkness premiered. Her new novel, Mariborská hypnósa, was released in March 2025 (Větrné mlýny publishing house) – the book received the Czech Magnesia Litera Award (Book of the Year) and the Luxor Prize (best Czech prose book) as well as the EULP Main Award (European Literature Prize) 2026!
Winterbuch der Liebe (Winter Book of Love), 2024 – Mikrotext Verlag, Berlin. Translated from Czech by Nataša von Kopp.
Herr Niemand und die weiße Finsternis (Mr. Nobody and the White Darkness), 2022 – BALAENA Verlag. Translated from Czech by Nataša von Kopp.
Inseln (Islands), 2021 – BALAENA Verlag. Translated from Czech by Hana Hadas.
Berliner Notizbuch (Berlin Notebook), 2018 – BALAENA Verlag. Translated from Czech by Ruben Höppner.
Parataxe – das berliner stadtsprachen magazin (Anthology), 2019 – KLAK Verlag.
Die letzte Metro – Junge Literatur aus Tschechien (The Last Metro – Young Literature from the Czech Republic), 2018 – Voland & Quist Verlag.
Events
Dora Kaprálová: The Maribor Hypnosis
Mon, 6. Jul // 20:00,
Maschinenhaus (Kulturbrauerei) entrance: Knaackstraße 97, 10435 Berlin
