Helena Beguivinová

Helena Beguivinová was born in 1951 in Prague and graduated high school in 1970. She spent the 1970s mostly in Brittany. Upon returning to Prague, she worked as a librarian at the Institute of Paint Materials while also engaging in technical translations from French and English. Gradually, she shifted to specialized translations in the humanities. Since the beginning of 1989, she has worked as a freelance translator and interpreter. From 1995, she has translated books, mainly in the humanities but also fiction. She has translated works by authors such as Raymond Aron, Jean-Claude Schmitt, René Girard, Arnold Van Gennep, Gilles Lipovetsky, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Fernand Braudel, Jean-Luc Chalumeau, Maurice-Ruben Hayoun, Marthe Robert, Evelyne Sullerot, Jacques Heers, Marc Bloch, Enzo Traverso, Renaud Camus, Daniel Pennac, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Jorge Semprun, Jean-Michel Guenassia, Michel Pastoureau, and even a poetry anthology from the work of Edmond Jabès.

In 2005, her translation of Michel Rozenfarb's detective novel Chapeau! received a creative award from the Translators' Association. Her translation of the youth book Winter’s End by Jean-Claude Mourlevat was nominated for the Golden Ribbon award in 2008. In 2009, Helena Beguivinová received the Jan Vladislav Prize, awarded by the French Embassy for translations supported by the Šalda Program. In 2012, her translation of Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky was awarded the Magnesia Litera prize in the category of translated literature.