Quick Facts
Biography
Jan Kantůrek (4 May 1948 in Zlín) is a Czech translator of fantasy, science fiction, comics and westerns from English. His most known translations are Discworld by Terry Pratchett and books about Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard and his successors.
Life
He is married with two children and lives in Prague. Between 1975-1990 Kantůrek worked as a copy editor in the Artia publishing house. From 1990 to 1992 he was a director of marketing department in the Aventinum publishing house. Since 1992 he has worked as a translator.
In 1984 he co-re-established a fanclub of Jules Verne, and started translating for its fanzins. He is a comics collector and, according to his own words, he can read English but not speak it.
He has also performed as the Librarian in theatrical productions of Pratchett's books. He was awarded "Best Translator" by the Czech Academy of science fiction, fantasy and horrors in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1999. Discworld was awarded "Best Book Series" in the same years. In 2003 he received an award for his lifetime work in science fiction by the Academy.