Jana Prikryl
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Jana Prikryl, born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia in 1975, is a poet, critic and editor. In 2020, she was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
.


Early life and education

Jana Prikryl was born in Ostrava, now in the Czech Republic. Aged five, in 1980, her parents took her and her elder brother on a 'holiday' to the Dalmatian coast of the then Yugoslavia, but diverted to Zagreb, obtained four-day tourist visas to Austria with passports valid only for travel to Yugoslavia, and, after some time in Austria, moved to Canada when Jana was six. The family settled in
Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...
, where Prikryl attended
Ancaster High School Ancaster High School is a member of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. The school's enrollment for 2014 was 3923, with Korean, Urdu, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic being the languages of note spoken by students along with Engli ...
. Prikryl learned Czech, then German, with English as her third language after her family moved to Canada. She now considers English to be her first language, and still speaks Czech. She graduated with a BA in English from the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
. After time living in Dublin, Prikryl moved to New York in 2003 to study for an MA in cultural reporting and criticism from
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.


Career

Following graduation, Prikryl worked at ''
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
'', initially as an intern. She became a senior editor, and in February 2021, she was named executive editor. As an essayist, her writings on photography and film have been published in the ''Nation'' and the ''New York Review''. Her poetry and criticism has been published in the ''New Yorker'', the ''London Review of Books'', the ''New York Review of Books'', the ''Paris Review'', the ''Nation'', and the ''Baffler'', in two collections - ''The After Party'' and ''No Matter'', and three anthologies, ''Best American Poetry 2020'', ''Best Canadian poetry 2020'', and The unprofessionals : new American writing from the Paris Review'' (2015). Her first book, ''The After Party'' was published in 2016. Reviewers considered her a "notably resourceful writer of autobiography", with an "understated sensibility" Themes include the Canadian landscape, "Ideas of in-betweenness", childhood and folklore. ''No Matter'' (2019) was mainly written while a 2017–2018 Radcliffe Institute Fellow at the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...
. Described as "restless, unsettled, elusive and dark" by the Toronto Star, ''No Matter'' was named one of the best poetry books of the year by the New York Times, and was chosen as one of the best books of the year 2019 in the New Statesman.


Personal life

As of 2019, she lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her husband, performing artist, Colin Gee, and their son, Nicholas, born in 2016. She became a U.S. Citizen in 2016. Her mother, Marcela Prikryl, is a materials scientist, artist, and courtroom sketch artist for the Hamilton Spectator. Prikryl's older brother died in an automobile accident in 1995 at the age of 27, and her first book, ''The After Party'' is dedicated to him.


Awards and recognition

Prikryl won a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship. She was a 2017–2018 Radcliffe Institute Fellow at the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...
at Harvard. Prikryl has received a
fellowship A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned or professional societies, the term refers ...
from
Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March  ...
, and a Creative Writing Grant from the
Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...
.


Bibliography


Collections

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Anthologies (as contributor)

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References


External links

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Profile at Poetry Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prikryl, Jana Living people American women poets Writers from Ostrava University of Toronto alumni The New York Review of Books people New York University alumni 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States Czechoslovak refugees 1975 births