Ota Filip

Ota Filip (9 March 1930 – 2 March 2018) was a Czech novelist and journalist. He wrote in both German and Czech.

Life
Filip was born in Slezská Ostrava, in present-day Czech Republic. His novels have been translated into French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, and Slovenian. During the communist era government of Czechoslovakia his works were banned or censored by the authorities, and after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact Armed Forces in 1968, he was sentenced for his dissident activities, and incarcerated from 1969–70. In 1974, he was forced to emigrate to West Germany.

Since 1975, he was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Munich, Germany.

Filip was awarded a number of literary awards in the Czech Republic and Germany, including the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize for German writing by a non-native German speaker.

On 28 October 2012, Ota Filip was awarded the National Medal of Merit in Fine Arts, a merit awarded to distinguished Czech artists by the Czech government on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918.

Selected works

 * Cesta ke hřbitovu, Profil, Ostrava, 1968
 * Blázen ve městě, Konfrontace, Curych, 1975; Profil, Ostrava, 1991
 * Nanebevstoupení Lojzka Lapáčka ze Slezské Ostravy, Edice Petlice, sv. č. 28, Prague, 1974; Český spisovatel, Prague, 1994
 * Poskvrněné početí, 68 Publishers, Toronto, 1976; Západočeské nakladatelství, 1990
 * Valdštýn a Lukrecie, 68 Publishers, Toronto, 1979
 * Děda a dělo, Host, Brno, 1989
 * Die Sehnsucht nach Procida, Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1988
 * Kavárna Slavia, Český spisovatel, Prague, 1993
 * Sedmý životopis, Host, Brno, 2000
 * Sousedé a ti ostatní, Host, Brno, 2003
 * 77 obrazů z ruského domu - Román o velké, ztroskotané lásce a vzniku abstraktního umění, Barrister & Principal, Brno, 2004
 * Osmý čili nedokončený životopis, Host, Brno, 2007