Bít o slam (2026)

This Czech-language poetry collection comes from one of the oldest living Czech slammers, Jan Jícha, known as Člobrdan, who returns to where he has always felt most at home: the stage, the page and the word. It is at once a provocation, a diagnosis and a declaration of love for language. With sharp humour and an inescapable edge, Jícha dissects a world in which the dictatorship of the fuckariat has been replaced not by order or reason, but by Captain Corporan, Botox and antisocial networks. He is a poet who does not sit quietly: he stands on stage and asks aloud whether there is any point in beating on slam when the space around us resounds with emptiness. The collection is filled with poems that read like monologues and are performed like shows, interspersed with relaxing pauses that are anything but peaceful. From parents’ meetings and European parliamenting to fading souls, Jícha leaves nothing owing to his subject, his reader or himself. The collection includes poems on being a proper Czech, self-examination, poetry, ageing, words, a father’s conflict with his son and daughter, Lucie Vondráčková showing her breasts, class meetings, a director’s reprimand, European parliamenting, the story of truth, the birth of a polyglot, encounters with tissue and extinguished souls, alongside several so-called relaxing pauses.