Josef Skvorecky
Josef Škvorecký, CM (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjozɛf ˈʃkvorɛtskiː] ( listen); September 27, 1924 – January 3, 2012) was a Czech writer and publisher who spent half of his life in Canada. Škvorecký was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1980. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country. Škvorecký's fiction deals with several themes: the horrors of totalitarianism and repression, the expatriate experience, and the miracle of jazz.