Prague-based English author Missouri Williams captured the attention of the literary world with her Gothically tinged debut novel The Doloriad, set in a post-apocalyptic version of Prague’s Vinohrady neighbourhood. Her new novel, The Vivisectors – a satirical story about a university graduate who becomes embroiled in a campus conspiracy – was longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. The event will be hosted by poet and writer Marek Torčík.

Missouri Williams is a British novelist, playwright, and editor who is based in Prague. Her debut novel, The Doloriad (2022), won the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She is an editor of the feminist film journal Another Gaze, and she has written for periodicals such as The Nation, The Baffler, The Believer, Granta, and The Drift. Her latest book, The Vivisectors (2026), a satirical novel set in a crumbling university town overrun by rampant vegetation, was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Marek Torčík is a Czech poet and prose writer of the young generation. He rose to public attention with his debut novel, Rozložíš paměť (Memory burn, 2024), which deals with a queer boy’s coming of age in a small town as well as family history and memory. The book stirred up the debate about the genre of auto-fiction, but above all, it appealed to readers and critics alike with its polished style and sensitivity, earning the author both the Jiří Orten Award and the Magnesia Litera Award for Prose. He most recently published a book Šedá podél cest (Grey along the roads, 2025).