I Caught Sight of My Face

- An English translation of Petr Hruska's poetry book Spatril jsem svou tv?r (2022), given the Magnesia Litera Award for poetry, the most prestigious annual literary award in the Czech Republic

Petr Hruska is widely considered one of the most important Czech poets. Based on 'The First Voyage around the World', written exactly 500 years earlier by Antonio Pigafetta, Hruska's I Caught Sight of my Face turns the glorious saga of Magellan's voyage of discovery into an unsettling exploration of human behavior, showing how man remains an anxious, insecure, sometimes cowardly, evil, xenophobic and violent being. It is an uncomplicated, yet at the same time, deeply profound book, brought to life through illustrations by Jakub Spanhel (1976), an acclaimed contemporary Czech visual artist, who creates an interesting dialogue between the text and its visual accompaniment.