Check email. Good old PJ writes that the Sunday blog is up on the Prague Writers’ Festival web site. (Yesterday I wrote by mistake wet site and when I asked PJ and Terry to correct it, they both said they liked the idea of wet site.)

Sit with Teri at the 10 o’clock press conference. Sasha is speaking about “home” when I enter. The rest of the panel consists of Peter Stephan Jungk, Arnon Grunberg and Michael March (as chairman). Arnon says he is in exile because he followed a woman to New York City, then fell in love with the city. Home for Arnon is when he goes into a restaurant and the waiters know his name. He also says he could be at home in a hotel room. He and I are in complete agreement. I must admit my room here at the Hotel Josef is nicer and bigger than my room in my atelier in Paris. The bathroom is also nicer here in the Hotel Josef. (Later in the day, I discuss this with Milena Findeis, the Assistant Manager of the Hotel Josef. She is surprised to learn that my room here is larger and nicer than my room in Paris. I have a large three floor studio in Paris, but I think I would trade it all for what I have here at the Josef.)

Peter Stephan Jungk has had a wandering life, from Austria to California and back to Austria again. His family took him back to Vienna, but enrolled him in an American School. They wanted him to master the German-language and to retain his English. In this, they (and Peter) were successful. He now lives in Paris, writes in German, and enjoys life in a French-speaking environment. Sasha Hemon began life in Bosnia, then moved to Chicago, now lives in Paris and is soon about to up-root himself and set off for Chicago once again. Sasha is wearing a T-shirt that states:  Somewhere in Texas a village is missing its idiot (or words to that effect). George Bush arrived in Prague today. I was born in Louisiana, spent some teen years in Venezuela, lived three years in Atlanta, Georgia, university at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, military service in San Antonia, Texas and Edinburgh, Scotland, continued to live in Edinburgh after the military, studied at the university, created a bookshop and gallery, founded the Traverse Theatre, helped organize the Fringe Festival, moved to London and created another theatre, co-founded a newspaper and a magazine, an arts laboratory, moved to Amsterdam and Paris in 1969 and have been living happily in Paris some 38 years. And for a number of years made World Passports and have always considered that I was first and foremost a World Citizen.

Give Milena a copy of White Washing Fences, a book that some thirty friends have written that honors my life. Later she gives me a Hotel Josef baggage ring. Coffee outside the press conference room in the open air. What a beautifully designed hotel. Congratulate Michal Ginter, who was able to do such a beautiful job translating from Czech to English and back to Czech again. Flawlessly. (Seemingly.) Like Jindra Dvorakova yesterday. Learn that Michal speaks not only English and Czech, but also Russian, Polish and Slovak. And he is learning French. We talk a bit about languages. I also talk with Michael March who says that he is enjoying these daily blogs.

Upstairs in the lobby, find Adrian Notz sitting with his laptop. What a nice fellow he is. Hannah is there as well reading a novel ”written on yellow paper” which she says she is enjoying. Mollye joins us. I learn that Hannah has just collected James Meek from the airport. Tell Adrian that I must excuse myself to take a pee. He says: ”Tango que cambiar el agua de mi pajaron” which roughly translates as I must change my large bird’s water. This I must remember for the future.

Stroll to the Big Ben Booshop with Hannah, Peter Stephan Jungk, Arnon Grunberg, James Meek and Michael March. Michael March starts to introduce me to James Meek and I report that he and I met in Edinburgh via his publisher, Jamie Byng. Talk briefly with the owner of the Big Ben. His name is Miro. Tell him that I used to have a bookshop in Edinburgh.

Decide to walk back to the Hotel Josef and spot Lubos Snizek sitting and reading a newspaper. Interrupt this activity and we talk for a while. I learn that not only has he translated Gary Snyder into Czech, but also Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, and Sherman Alexie. He is also an Editor at Mata Publishers. I give him an invitation to dine on Sunday at my atelier when he is next in Paris.

Sit in the lobby and talk with Milena about the Hotel Josef. She tells me that the owner, Rudolf Ploberger, is from Austria and that it took him some seven years to get all the necessary permissions to build the hotel. She says that he used a Czech architect who left Prague in 1968 to live in London. Her name is Eva Jiricna. He also has another smaller hotel, the Maximilian, that is located just around the corner. The Hotel Josef opened officially the 23rd of June in 2002. And I stayed here in November 2003. Milena leaves me for a minute and returns with an interesting looking man. We are introduced and he is Rudolf Ploberger. I like him immediately and tell him how much I admire what he has achieved with this hotel. We talk a bit and then both he and Milena have things to do.

I go out for a stroll in the beautiful afternoon, all warm and sunny. For some reason, end up having mini burritos in a Mexican place called Hacienda Mexicana. I was looking for the restaurant where John Flattau and Susi Wyss and I ate back in 2003. But I am happy with my burritos.

There is a talk at 16.00 hours, “Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich” by Adrian Notz and “Citizen Serner” by Ludvik Kundera in the Municipal Library. Alas I missed them. Then at 17.30, there is another Guardian conversation entitled “Neutrality is a form of divinity” (A Joseph Roth quote.) Walk to the Municipal Library with Edward Mortimer, who will act as the moderator. The panel includes Gary Snyder, Peter Stephan Jungk, James Meek, and Sasha Hemon. Sit in the front row with Teri Hemon. As always it is a stimulating and fun conversation.

Afterwards, a bunch of us walk to the theatre Minor. Lara Woolston leads us all astray by suggesting beers in a small dark place next to the theatre. We all succumb. Hooray for Lara! And she treats us all.

Then at 19.30, there is an international evening with James Meek, Peter Stephan Jungk, and Arnon Grunberg all reading from their works. Again superb.

I sit and talk with a tall and very attractive young woman named Stanislava Simuniova. She buys a Peter Stephan Jungk novel in the original German-language direct from Peter via Miro’s bookstall. She is with an N.G.O. that helps people to help people. It is called Servitus. Learn that she spent a year in Siberia. Very interesting person. Adrian Notz takes a photograph of us with his new camera which he promises to send to PJ for the web site.

Ride back to the Hotel Josef with Gen and Gary Snyder. They invite me to join them for dinner, but once again I elect to write my blog and go to bed not too late.

www.pwf.z