Worm-Eaten Light (Červotočivé světlo – Mladá fronta 1969) is Pavel Šrut’s last officially published volume after the Soviet Invasion in 1968. Two days after publication, the books were removed from the shelves and Šrut’s poetry banned. Written during the period of August to December 1968, Worm-Eaten Light is a moving testament to Šrut’s struggle to find meaning in a world that has slipped from summer’s light into fall’s darkness. 

Šrut is one of the most influential poets from the generation of writers who matured during Prague Spring. After his poetry was banned in 1969, he was forced to shift his efforts from poetry to children’s books, translations and rock lyrics. In 2000, Šrut won the Jaroslav Seifert Award, the top prize in Czech poetry, for Unbound Poems and another work, Evil Beloved (Zlá milá). His children’s books have delighted children for decades, and his most recent effort, The Odd-Sock Eaters (Lichožrouti – Paseka 2008), won all the top Czech literary awards for children’s fiction. It is the Czech nominee for the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Award.