Dear Reader,

My name is Jaroslav Kalfař. I was born into a revolution in Prague, Czech Republic, where I began writing short stories as soon as I could hold a pen. I immigrated to the United States at the age of fifteen, dropped out of high school, waited tables, worked in a photo lab, and manned a cash register before finding my path back to higher education. I studied writing and literature at New York University, and during my time there I wrote an early draft of my debut novel, Spaceman of Bohemia.

Spaceman was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, The Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and a nominee for the Dublin Literary Award. The book has been published in fifteen languages so far. A film adaptation directed by Johan Renck, starring Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, and Paul Dano, is coming to Netflix in 2023.

In 2018, I was honored to receive the prestigious fiction fellowship from the National Endowments for the Arts, the highlight of my career so far.

I live in Brooklyn, where I split my time between writing novels and screenplays, and devouring any book I can get my hands on. I love odd books that play with genre expectations, reflect the strangest parts of life which can be found both in the mundane and the extraordinary.

I travel back to the Czech Republic as often as possible, to reconnect with my family, my language, my culture and history. I am grateful to have multiple homes, as each provides its own unique inspiration, stories, texture of living.

How unlikely, yet here we are. It's wonderful to meet you.