Jaroslav Olša Jr.

Order of Sikatuna, rank Datu, gold distinction – highest Philippine order, bestowed by H.E. Mr. Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Republic of the Philippines on November 23, 2018

Honorary Citizenship of Seoul – awarded by Hon. Mr. Park Won-soon, Seoul City Mayor on October 29, 2012

The Mark Palmer Prize for Diplomats – received from Hon. Audronius Ažubalis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithunania on the 6th Ministerial of the Community of Democracies in Vilnius on July 1, 2011

Jaroslav Olša Jr. is a Czech diplomat whose posts include those of Ambassador to Zimbabwe (2000–2006), South Korea (2008–2014) and the Philippines (2014–2018), and Consul General in Los Angeles (2020–current); author of books on history, art and literature of Asia and Africa. He is also science fiction editor, translator and bibliographer. (see Hobbies). He is also the author of books and articles on history, culture and literature of Asia and Africa and historical relations of the non-European countries with the Czech Lands. He has also widely published about science fiction and edited over a dozen anthologies of Czech and international science fiction. He has published in a wide-range of publications such as Czech edition of National Geographic, Nový Orient (New Orient), Světová literatura (World Literature), Mezinárodní politika (Foreign Policy), Mezinárodní vztahy (International Relations). Contributor to various Czech and foreign-language encyclopedias. He was also a curator of art exhibitions, member of the jury of 2011 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and initiated numerous cultural exchanges and activities.

Since his childhood he liked science fiction. He became active in science fiction fandom in Czechoslovakia in 1983 and soon became one of the driving forces of the unofficial movement. He translated from Polish and English, wrote articles on science fiction and reports. He also attended many science fiction conventions in Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Soviet Union, Britain during the 1980s, including Worldcon in Brighton in 1987. After being introduced by Czech SF writer Josef Nesvadba, he joined WORLD SF and participated in a couple of its meetings, e. g. in Fanano (Italy) in 1986 and Chengdu (China) in 1991. In 1986 he started major Czechoslovak fanzine Ikarie XB named after the most influential Czech SF film Ikarie XB-1. Fanzine saw four yearly issues until 1989, and after the Velvet Revolution turned into the first Czechoslovak/Czech sf monthly magazine Ikarie (published 1990-2010, now published as XB-1) of which he was for a time assistant editor. Together with Alexandre Hlinka he also started a small science fiction publisher - AFSF - which was active until the late 1990s and published more than 70 titles, including such as selections of the best stories by Harry Harrison, or Frederik Pohl, and novels by Robert Silverberg, Robert A. Heinlein, Norman Spinrad, Rudy Rucker, Kim Stanley Robinson and also a few original anthologies of both Anglo-American as International science fiction (see bibliography). Olša´s most important role in science fiction studies has been as co-editor of the Czech Encyklopedie literatury science fiction (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Literature, 1995)with Ondřej Neff, and his chapbook on forgotten Czech-American science fiction writer Miles J. Breuer, also known under Czech version of his name Miloslav J. Breuer. He has also edited about a dozen science fiction anthologies, among them the first anthologies of Czech science fiction in English (published in India), Ndebele, Korean and Japanese. He has contributed to Czech, Polish, Russian, French, German, British and US science fiction publications, also to Locus and Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction; has compiled bibliographies of Czech and Slovak fanzines; and has written entries to Clute´s Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993).