Jan Novak

Jan Novak is co-author and co-producer of Citizen Vaclav Havel Goes on Vacation. He was born in Czechoslovakia and emmigrated to the United States at the age of 17.

He was educated at the University of Chicago and has been making his living as a writer. Most recently he was awarded the Czech Republic's most prestigious prize, the Magnesia Litera, for So Far, So Good, Petrov, the Book of the Year of 2004. He has also won two Sandburg Prizes for Chicago's Book of the Year (The Willys Dream Kit, 1985, fiction; Commies, Spooks, Gypsies, Crooks & Poets, 1995, non-fiction). Among his other books are a novel, The Grand Life, and the co-authored autobiography of Milos Forman, Turnaround, which was translated into sixteen languages.

His play Ax murder in St. Petersburg was the finalist for the Slovak Play of the Year in 2001 and has been playing in the repertory of Bratislava's Astorka Theater ever since. (2006)