American diary: Everything is different

The same United States of America, and yet so different. In Jana Ciglerová's new American Diary, everything is quite different from how it was a few years ago. Donald Trump has retaken the presidential office, and with him, previously unimaginable changes. What is daily life like in the “new” America, buffeted by a storm of political, social, and security challenges? In the sequel to her popular observations, the Deník N journalist describes an education system riddled with fear, the complexities of voting in the Czech presidential election from abroad, and the restrictions associated with Trump's fight against the LGBTQ+ community. But she also lets us glimpse the completely mundane trials of everyday life, from dog shelters and frozen iguanas to spending holidays and national bank holidays, and even to differing approaches to helping others or to death and mourning. What is it like to live in the USA today? And does anything like the “American Dream” still exist?

About the author:

She studied journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Prague and International Journalism at City, University of London. She lives in the USA and came to Deník N after thirteen years at MF Dnes as an American correspondent. In the past, she worked as a correspondent for Lidové noviny in Great Britain, wrote for the Observer and the Evening Standard, and completed an internship for foreign correspondents in Helsinki. She is also interested in women's issues, founded the discussion show Tah dámou on ČT, headed Elle magazine, and was there at the start of the Ona Dnes supplement. In addition to her journalistic work, she also lectures for Czech and foreign media and journalism students in Prague, and in 2016 she lectured at Clemson University in South Carolina, for example. She is the recipient of the Journalism Award for Interview of the Year and the international Amerigo Award for her book American Diary.

“For me, Jana Ciglerová's reports and articles represent a combination of high-quality journalism with our European, Czech perspective. In her books, Jana goes even deeper beneath the surface and reflects on politics and life in the United States more personally, more internally. Her insights always interest me, and I often think: If I knew how, this is exactly how I would say it.”

Martina Formanová, writer and screenwriter