Overture page of the Winter MP

Editor in Chief                                Anna Marie Hupcejová

Co-Editor                                          Jaromír Lelek

Native speaker co-editor            Graham Bush

Graphic Designer                           Anastasia Vrublevská

Sponsor                                            The English College in Prague – Anglické gymnázium

Overture

The first 50 copies of the Autumn MP were sold in a single week, the next 50 copies disappeared equally as quickly. This success not only surprised us, but also made us decide that the next issue should definitely be thicker. Hence in the Winter MP there are altogether not 21, but 27 pages of content and we have included new sections such as “For the Stage” and “Miscellaneous Articles”. Though only 75 physical copies were ordered, I believe that in case they do run out, it is worth writing us for the PDF copy that will be available too. In either form, I hope our readers will enjoy reading the creations of (both present and exchange) students and professors from the Faculty of Arts, CU’s English and American Studies department.

Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief)

OVERTURE to the Autumn MP

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” – Henry David Thoreau

The Musepaper may not be a castle, yet until now it was “in the air”, built mainly on the idea of a monthly virtual magazine for students of Anglophone Studies at the Faculty of Arts, CU. The “foundations” have been gradually built since February 2013; more members in the M-team and the financial support of the English College in Prague have together made it possible for you to purchase and hold this magazine in your hands.

The autumn issue revives memories of summer, functions as a platform for creative writing and gives an introduction to interesting personae we have interviewed newly or in the past. It also is the first of the three MPs planned to be published during this academic year – and I earnestly hope and believe it is one that will amuse both our regular and new readers.

Anna Hupcejová

Editor in Chief

Overture of the June MP

Despite the stress and responsibilities of the exam period, it was absolutely marvellous to have received so much material for the June MP. Johana Lajdová, for example, sent in a report about a lecture on the Welsh language, organized by Erasmus, together with an interview with the young lecturers. However, due to the page limit and also the feeling that 3 interviews in a single issue is too much, the interview will be available online only.

Nonetheless, there are a lot of great articles that did get into the June MP. Since it is the final issue of this academic year, the majority of its content will look back at the academic year as well as discussing plans for the summer or future in general. For example, in the interviews with Professor Mirka Horová and the blues singer Junawa Jenkins, they discuss the past and future of their works. Then there are reviews of events. Andrew Buring reflects on a B O D Y Spring Reading in “A Writing of a Reading”, where this month’s short fiction “Starry Night” was read by the author Diane Simmons herself. Jaromír Lelek then gives a personal account of the Prague Microfestival – and Veronika Soukupová concludes the issue with a short flash-back article about her BA studies.

Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief)

Overture to the May MP

It is a truth universally acknowledged that May is a month both loved and dreaded. While on one hand summer and the bliss of holidays are near, on the other one must survive and pass the ordeals of exams. Nevertheless, the May MP is out! This issue’s interviews are with two head personas from Prague literary magazines. The first is with Stephan Delbos, who is not only a professor at our faculty, but also is the Poetry editor of B O D Y and the second is with Shaan Bon Joshi, the Editor in Chief of The Prague Revue. These interviews share the pages with; event reviews, poems and a study report from an Erasmus student from Kent – and together, they form the 10^th Musepaper.

Anna Hupcejova (Editor in Chief)

Overture to the April MP

Mid-term is already behind us and by now most minds are focused on essays, presentations and tests. As a result, most of the articles included in this issue have a more formal theme rather than laid-back travel reports that filled the pages of last month’s Musepaper. Indeed, there are event reviews from FebioFest, the theatre and the launch of CAIRO and also a lengthy, yet very absorbing interview with the Literary Theory professor David Vichnar. However, the poems, review of Wes Andersen’s latest masterpiece and an interview with Ken Nash provide a refuge from the academic that our readers might welcome. Yet all in all, I believe this month’s Musepaper makes an amusing read, fit for any free moments during days of study and leisure. 

Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief)

Overture to the March MP

Astrological Spring has finally begun and the summer semester is in full swing. With the summer holidays far away, some people decided to write an article on their latest trips abroad - the vivid travel reports included in this issue are from journeys west to France and Costa Rica and east to Ukraine and Poland. One’s spirits can be uplifted by reading the interviews with the ever-enthusiastic professor Tomáš Gráf and the humorous Prague-based poet Willie Watson. There is also the traditional pair of poems and a short story that is written by me. I hope your attention will also be diverted to the article written by Angie Siljanoska, “The Best Are Easiest to Talk To” which introduces her fellow student Jitka, a Prague Conservatoire graduate and music teacher with 30 years of experience, who shares her reasons for returning to university as a student of Anglophone Studies.

Anna Hupcejová

Overture to the Janaury/February double-issue

Since December was a busy time with Christmas, New Year, last lessons and first anxiety attacks from the upcoming exam period – so understandably no MP was published in that month. To catch up with the months, what you are reading now is the overture to the January and February double-issue.

One often hears the words “quality, not quantity”. Even though this MP is longer, I decided to put in new themes and people outside of our university. So alongside the usual sections with poems and event reviews, you can look forward to reading interviews with our professor Justin Quinn, the Prague-based British musician Alasdair Bouch and American writer Hans Fellmann. Furthermore, there are articles on Prague, written by three ERASMUS or exchange students who I met during the search for a native-speaker editor back in October. It was interesting to notice that though discussing the same theme, they each focused on something else, like the education system, food or Czech history.

I hope you will find this issue as enriching a read as I did when putting it together.

Download the beautiful PDF version of the MP here.

-          Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief)

Overture to the November MP

Winter is upon us, yet given the number and genre diversity of the articles sent in, inspiration has not fallen into slumber. In the November issue, the genres of interview, poetry, short story, travel and event reports are present – it is a highly readable one and I hope you will enjoy finding out more about students’ experiences at universities abroad, background of “The Tempest” production, the Doctor Who television series (written by our Native speaker co-editor) and more in articles written not only by the second year students.

You can read and download the PDF version of the MP for free over at this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9XZHIul8APITjhGZ2w5d0tUUGs/edit?usp=sharing

- Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief)

Overture to the October Issue

This summer has been very kind to the Musepaper. You can now see our logo presented on the TV screens at the Jan Palach library or the Studijní oddělení and find posters on bulletins all around the school. Thanks to the English College in Prague, the MP can also be found in beautiful color print-outs in the Anglophone, Jan Palach and Lord Holme libraries!

As for the content of this issue, you will find the following genres; poetry, short story, travel report, event reviews, a book review and an interview with Professor Ondřej Pilný.

May you enjoy the October issue and look forward to many more to come!

- Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief) 

Overture to the June Musepaper.

The exam period concluded and summer commenced. It is doubtlessly the best time to extend one’s reading repertoire and to write. What about? The adventures experienced when travelling or about the fictional situations we kept at the back of our minds throughout the busy semester… The final issue of this academic year is a collection of interviews, reviews and articles, all of which are connected to events that took place during the past month.

Enjoy!

There is no such thing as a same memory/ Není stejné paměti.

Two weekends back, there was the trip to Vienna that was organised by the Phonetics and Phonology department (about which M. Maratová wrote her article in the last issue). As the short reports from the two-day event suggest, each person perceived the same trip differently; while some focus on the museum, others discuss the journey or wine cellar as the highlight of the event. 

The unifying theme of ambiguity of perception continues with reviews of the Oscar film Lincoln, written by our USA History professor or with event reviews of the Irish Week’s Joyce Extravaganza and also of the classical music rendition of Alice in Wonderland. The interviews with one of the faculty’s professors and a young MA student who is publishing his first novel serve as short relief from the big chunks of prose that together create this issue. Nevertheless, I believe they will all make for an enriching read and hopefully the Contents page (that includes the introductory paragraph of each contribution) will guide one better through the magazine.

It is also my pleasure to announce that the Musepaper has agreed to cooperate with the Faculty’s Ffakt magazine! Therefore you may all expect more links, photographs and articles written by both English-American Studies students and non from the higher years – and I aspire that this collaboration will be mutually beneficial and will help the Musepaper move forward in terms of quality and increase its readership.

But for now, I heartily hope you will enjoy the May’s issue - the last we created solely on our own.

           Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief)

Overture to April's Issue.

 “Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours

Within my hand,—and then, elate and gay,

I hastened to the spot whence I had come,

That I might there present it!—Oh! to whom?“

The season of bloom has begun… at least astrologically, since the weather is as unstable as a woman’s mood. Nevertheless, when the sky is not gloomy, that wintery thin layer of snow or ice on the pavement is absent and a ray of fresh sunlight beams at us through the clouds, merry muses are awakened. Our physical and especially mental energy is renewed and as the concluding lines of P. B. Shelley’s The Question imply, the intense desire to share what our minds or hands have created is reborn... Hence here is the second issue of the student magazine The Musepaper!

As promised, this issue is of a more varied content – movie reviews have been extended to a recollection of Two Door Cinema Club’s concert and instead of a satire, one can find two humorous accounts of the annual Ball of our faculty… New genres are also included: poems, a travel report, an event planner, a short story, an interview with one of our beloved teachers and a section named “Visual Muses” that refers to art created by our course-mates – in this issue it is a glance into the sketchbook of one of the ever-busy double-subject students. Make haste! It’s all ahead of you to read and enjoy.

Anna Hupcejová, Editor in Chief

Overture to the first issue (March).

"The Musepaper" is a project created and carried out by the students of Charles University’s Anglophone Studies. Its aim is to collect and share literary creations written by us, for English is not meant to be solely a school subject; in The Musepaper, it is a medium of amusement with the aim to inspire and enlighten the creative and perceptive self. It is planned to be published once a month in a downloadable PDF version that will be available on its official Facebook page (link below). All contributions will include a photograph of the writer together with a short self-presentation, also self-written. Hopefully The Musepaper will reach more than a few issues and in time (fingers crossed), it will be successful enough to take a physical print form.

With the Oscars shortly behind us, the area of discourse of the first issue of The Musepaper has been limited down to movie reviews, written by a few courageous individuals. Anna Karenina, Django Unchained and The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey are all films with a connection to our course – Anna Karenina being the work of the renowned director Joe Wright, Tarantino’s Django discussing a chapter of American history and The Hobbit enabled the return to Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Lincoln, same as during the Oscars, has not been a favorite even among Anglophone students, but with next issue being more open to all kinds of contributions; it is definitely not yet a closed subject!

Nonetheless, I hope you, dear readers and fellow course mates, will enjoy this premiere of The Musepaper – turn this page to begin your journey through the cinematic world and analytical minds of the first active Musepaper members. Spoiler alert! It all begins with a short satire, continues with reviews and ends with an overture to the next issue.

Anna Hupcejová (Editor in Chief)