Live from Hotel Josef, Monday
Prague Writers' Festival, J Haynes' blog, 4 June 2007

Breakfast once again with Jim Naughton. Teri and Sasha arrive and sit at a table next to ours. Talk, of course, turns to last night Theatre Minor. Pick up today’s Guardian. Quick visit to the Hotel Josef’s Media Center to check e-mail. It seems PJ received the blog I fired off to him last night and it is up now on the Prague Writers’ Festival Web site. Walk out into the lobby and bump into Michael March who says there is a press conference starting in a few minutes. Go down to the press area and see Vlasta and we gossip a bit.

On the platform this morning are Tom Sandqvist, Michael March, Adrian Notz, and Ludvik Kundera. And the fantastic interpreter, Jindra Dvorakova! Michael March relates how the theme for this years Writers’ Festival came to be and it seems that Tom Sandqvist and his book, DADA EAST played a major role. Adrian Notz, in his role of Director of International Projects at Cabaret Voltaire, tells us about how a group of people were able to get the city of Zurich to support the re-opening of the old Cabaret Voltaire. Adrian also says that the Swiss watch company, Swatch, is a major sponsor. Ludvik Kundera was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1920. He was sent to Nazi Germany as a forced-laborer during the Second World War. When he returned, he established the Czech surrealist group Ra. He went on the write some thirty theatre, radio and TV plays, more than twenty books of poetry, dozens of essays. In the 1980s, he published DADA, a samizdat anthology of Dadaism. A very interesting gathering.

Talk afterwards with Tom Sandqvist and Adrian Notz. Somehow mention the World Passport that I created with Garry Davis in the early 1970s. And the fact that I traveled with it from Switzerland to Italy and then back into France. And that for a number of years my home in Paris served as the Embassy for World Government and we issued passports to one and all seven days a week from morning to night. In fact the whole thing is (and was) pure Dada. I kick myself for not bring a World Passport with me to Prague. Tell them as well about the Criminal action that the French government brought against us in the early 70s, that we were found guilty of “confusing the public”. Charges were dropped against me if I elected to stop issuing World Passports from my home. I agreed to do so. But Garry Davis moved to Vermont and still continues to issue these World Passports.

Go upstairs and learn that a taxi has been called to take Peter Stephan Jungk and myself to the Israeli Ambassador’s residence for a lunch. On the way there, I sign a copy of my manifesto, Workers of the World, Unite and Stop Working! and pass it to Peter. An attractive woman greets us and says that the Ambassador will arrive to join us shortly. I walk out on the terrace and find myself talking with Lara Woolston from London. She says that she is organizing a story-telling society. I tell her that I have a friend in Paris who has created such an organization in Paris and that it has been extremely successful. Tell her to contact me and I will put her into contact with him. The buffet lunch is soon on the table and dozens of starving writers are filling plates. The Ambassador greets us and gets Abraham Yehoshua to say a few words. He makes a short speech declaring that only the Israeli Ambassador forces a writer “to pay” for his lunch in this fashion, that Tom did not have to do this at the Swedish party, that Elena did not have to do this at the Romanian reception, that no American or Swiss writers will be forced to do this. It’s funny and charming. Talk a long time with the Swedish Ambassador, Catherine von Heidenstan, and she tells me that she has read my web site and finds the idea of the Sunday night salon very interesting and that in late July or early August, she hopes to pass through Paris and participate. I encourage her to do it. It seems it might be time to say my “thank-yous” and go outside and see if I can find a ride to the Hotel Josef. Encounter the Mexican Ambassador, Federico Salas, in the steps outside. Thank him for the party he hosted in 2002. He says he is leaving Prague for a new posting in Israel in a few days. I mention my trips to the Guadalajara Book Fair, my summer in Cuernavaca, friendships with Hector Manjarrez, meeting Carlos Fuentes, but stop short of telling him of my love for Mexican cuisine. He picks up on the name Carlos Fuentes and says he is off to the air port to collect him, that he arrives today in Prague. (And so does George Bush.)

I am beginning to wonder how I will get back into Prague when I see Abraham Yehoshua and his wife, Ika, walk out. It seems an official embassy car will take them back to the Hotel Josef. They ask if I would like to ride with them. Yes! Learn that they are flying to Israel after midnight tonight. I will miss them. Two extremely charming and warm human beings! The world needs more of them.

Back at the Josef, up to my room, and dive into bed for a brief nap.

Taxi with Helen and Edgar Doctorow and with Hannah to the Theatre Minor. There was a talk at 16.00 hours which we are missing. At 17.30 the Guardian conversation, “Thought begins in the mouth” – credited to Tristan Tzara – will feature E.L. Doctorow, Arnon Grunberg, Elena Sefoi, Peter Staphan Jungk, and Michael March as moderator. In many ways, the title of any discussion is not that important. But this session, once again, produces some inspired moments.

Then there is a break and we are back in the theatre again for three readings. Abraham Yehoshua reads briefly from an early novel, first in Hebrew and then in English. He is followed by Pavel Reznicek who reads his surreal poetry in Czech. Jim Naughton attempts to read the English translations for those of us with head phones, but in typical surreal fashion, Pavel has changed the order and even reads more poems than he said he would. The evening ends with Gary Snyder casting his spell over everyone. A delicious reading.

Ride back in a taxi to the Hotel Josef with Gary Snyder and his son, Gen. They are going out to dine with Dominique and Paul Kahn and I am invited to join them. I dearly would love to do so. Not only am I hungry, but it would also be fun and stimulating to be in this company. But duty calls. I must produce another day’s blog. Very late Teri and Sasha return to the hotel. I am spotted and Teri comes up to make sure I am OK. What a darling she is! Sasha, you are one lucky fellow. Soon finished, soon in bed.