Organized by Alena Aissing (Librarian/Curator for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at UCLA Library) and Jaroslav Olša Jr. (Consul of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles);
Promotional designs by Gissel Rios (Selection and Outreach Support Assistant)
Bianca Bellová was born in Prague, where she lives halfway between the Balkan and British parts of her family. She is a translator and interpreter. Her novel The Lake has won several literary awards, including the EU Prize for Literature, and publication rights have been sold to twenty-one countries” (Czech Lit).
Jaroslav Olša Jr. is a Czech diplomat whose posts include those of Ambassador to Zimbabwe (2000–2006), South Korea (2008–2014) and the Philippines (2014–2018), and Consul General in Los Angeles (2020–current); author of books on history, art, and literature of Asia and Africa. He is also a science fiction editor, translator, and bibliographer.