Zlin writer Antonín Bajaja died on Friday at the age of 80. He received the Magnesia Litera Award for the novel Zvlčení and the State Prize for Literature for the novel On the Beautiful Blue Woodland. Bajaja also wrote a number of short stories, fairy tales, essays and feuilletons. He also won a number of journalistic awards. The director of the State District Archive in Zlín, David Valůšek, reported on his death today on social networks.
“An excellent writer and my godfather, Antonín Bajaja, died yesterday after a serious illness. He maintained his characteristic humor and kindness until his last days.” stated
The literate Bajaja, who set the events of his books in his native Zlín and the surrounding Wallachia, was born on May 30, 1942. He came from the family of a Zlín doctor. Despite his “bourgeois” origin, he managed to graduate from the University of Agriculture in Brno in the 1960s. After school, he worked as a zootechnician in Wallachia. He made his debut in 1982 with the novel Mluviti stríbro.
After November 1989, Bajaja left agriculture. He became the editor of Czechoslovak Radio in Brno, wrote for the daily Prostor, later for the magazine Týden, and at the same time worked at Radio Svobodná Evropa. Since the mid-1990s, he has led creative writing seminars in Olomouc and Zlín. He was a member of the Council of Czech Television, a co-creator of the Act on the Protection of Animals Against Cruelty and was at the birth of the Wlastenci Choir at the Czech Center of the International PEN Club. Some of Bajaj’s texts were adapted for Czech Radio.