Results of Velvet Revolution Writing Contest Revealed

On November 7, 2024, Anglo-American University (AAU) hosted the final ceremony of the 2024 Velvet Revolution Writing Contest at its Prague campus. The event marked the conclusion of a competition held to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and featured the announcement of contest winners and the release of an anthology containing selected works by participants.

Organized in partnership with Media:list and Paměť národa, under the auspices of the US and British embassies, the contest encouraged students from across the Czech Republic and Slovakia to reflect on the Velvet Revolution’s enduring legacy. Under the theme “How Could any Revolution be Velvet?”, entrants could submit works in the form of essays, reportage, or short stories that captured personal or collective experience connected to those momentous events in 1989. Additional contest partners and supporters included KOREJZOVÁ LEGAL, FOMOSO, SPORTISIMO, and Albatros Media.

The competition was divided into two age categories: up to 18 and 19 to 26. In the younger category, Nela Kedziorová, a student at the Medlánky Science School in Brno, won the top prize of a fully-funded Bachelor’s scholarship, while, in the second category, Philip Wetzel, an international relations and diplomacy student at AAU, was awarded a fully-funded Master’s scholarship. Rachel Kate Cronnelly, also from AAU, received the special recognition prize of an internship at the non-profit Paměť národa. Contest participants each received a hardcopy of the anthology containing their submissions.

The winners and selected works included in the anthology were decided by a committee comprising Joshua M. Hayden, chair of the Department of Social Sciences at AAU; Monika MacDonagh-Pajerová, lecturer at AAU and student leader during the Velvet Revolution; Radek Stavěl, writer and creative idea maker; and Martin Klíma, executive producer of Warhorse Studios.

Veronika Johanovská, AAU’s external outreach manager and contest co-organizer, served as mistress of ceremonies. The event included speeches from Jeta Sahatqija, vice president for student affairs; Alice Thomassen, diplomat from the British Embassy; Tomáš Knaibl from the US Embassy; MacDonagh-Pajerová; and Jiří Schwarz, president of AAU, who also presented the awards.

The ceremony, which was recorded by CNN Prima News, closed with a musical performance by violinist Pavla Tesařová and cellist Juraj Škoda, who performed compositions by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, and Georg Friedrich Händel. Attendees were provided with catered refreshments as the evening concluded.