is a writer. As a child he spent three years in a Nazi concentration camp. He studied philosophy at Karel University and then worked as an editor for a publisher. From 1964 to 1968 he was also editor in chief of the prestigious magazine Literární noviny. Until 1989 his many plays, novellas, short stories and essays were banned and could only be published abroad, where they were translated into many different languages. Klíma is a member of the Club from Rome, the Ambassadors Club and PEN. In 2002 Klíma won the Franz Kafka International Prize for his complete oeuvre, and the Medal of Merits of the Czech republic, that was awarded to him by the former president Václav Havel.