Kohout, Pavel

Pavel Kohout, the internationally renowned dramatist and novelist, was born in Prague in 1928.  He is one of the most conspicuous and at the same time one of the most controversial cultural and political figures of Czech history in the second half of the twentieth century. A leader of the Prague Spring of 1968, he was expelled from the Communist Party in 1969, and his work was suppressed for more than twenty years. With Vaclav Havel he is responsible for the groundbreaking freedom document "Charta 77," written in 1977. He is the author of I Am Snowing: The Confessions of a Woman of Prague, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His plays include Poor Murderer(produced in Ethel Barrymore Theater, NY in 1976), Fool's Mate (produced in  New End, London 1990), Fire In The Basement  (produced in Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1998)

Kohout divides his time between Vienna and Prague.