We are a team from the Prague-Berlin publishing house Black Swan Media. Since 2015, we have been publishing books and magazines and organizing events called Salons in our house ฤernรก labuลฅ on Na Poลรญฤรญ Street in the very center of Prague.
As part of the Noble Notes series, we are preparing two exceptional publications (book and magazine) this year that showcase the Czech Republic โ the guest of honor at this yearโs Frankfurt Book Fair, the worldโs most important publishing event. These are a German-language anthology of important Czech writers entitled Buch รผber Bรผcher and the magazine Magic Mag from Prague โ an English-language mosaic of cultural, economic, and political life in the Czech Republic.
In our editorial office: photographer Tomรกลก ลฝeleznรฝ, Buch รผber Bรผcher editor Lucie Drahoลovskรก, Magic Mag editor Jan Mรผller, art director Michaela Zajรญฤkovรก, author Ivan Adamoviฤ, publisher Danuลกe Siering, layout designer Sam Kubรญn, and editor Bรกra Vojtovรก.
Danuลกe Siering
In 2015, I founded Black Swan Media with the aim of bringing the most interesting aspects of Czechia to foreign readers and, at the same time, showing Czechs what makes their country unique in a cosmopolitan world. I live and work between Prague and Berlin, which allows me to open up space for literary dialogue across borders. My current focus is on two publications for the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair โ Buch รผber Bรผcher in German and MagicMag from Prague in English.
Jan Mรผller
Editor of Magic Mag from Prague. He has been working in the media since the age of nineteen, starting as an editor at Veฤernรญk Praha in 1994. From 1996 to 2009, he headed the media and IT supplement at Lidovรฉ noviny, as well as the magazines Pรกtek and Esprit. Later, he managed the magazines Strategie, Prรกvo & Byznys, Zen (a supplement to the daily E15), ForMen, and the Chinese-language magazine Esence. From 2017 to 2021, he was the director of the web magazine Flowee. From 2021 to 2025, he was the editor of the Czech-German book magazine N&N. In 2015, he was the creative director of the book project 190 Years of ฤeskรก spoลitelna. He is the author of the essay book Prลฏvodce budoucnostรญ (Guide to the Future, 2018). He is the co-author of the books Dรญtฤ v sรญti (Child on the Net, 2019), Zlatรฝ boss (Golden Boss, 2020), Rebel Hnรญzdil (2021), and 50 pilรญลลฏ dospฤlosti (50 Pillars of Adulthood, 2023). In 2025, he published the books Dฤjiny ฤeskรฉho pojiลกลฅovnictvรญ (History of Czech Insurance) and Nazรญ v AI dobฤ (Naked in the AI Age).
Michaela Zajรญฤkovรก
The art director, who grew up in Prague, Sweden and New York, takes moving between different languages, countries, cultures and creative fields as a natural part of her life. Through photography she got into graphic design and then studied media communication. Since 2002 she has been working in the Czech media, including the weekly Instinkt, the daily Lidovรฉ noviny, the monthly Dลฏm a zahrada and the web magazine Flowee. She also works on corporate visual identities and book design.
Lucie Pantazopoulou Drahoลovskรก
At Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich she studied German Studies, Literary Studies and Sociology. She remained loyal to the German-speaking environment in Prague as an editor of the Prager Zeitung and a contributor to the German-language editorial office of Czech Radio. For years she has been responsible for the cultural pages of the German-language monthly LandesEcho. She has long been writing about literature, art and architecture for the Goethe-Institut in Prague and, last but not least, for N&N Czech-German Bookmag.
Barbora Vojtovรก
I studied tourism and economic journalism at the university in Prague. Since the founding of Black Swan Media, I have been working there as an editor. At the same time, I write for other media outlets, mainly on topics related to culture, travel, and culinary arts โincluding enology, which has long been a subject of interest to me. I live in Slavonice, an underground historic town in the shadow of the former ลฝeleznรก opona (Iron Curtain).
Marcela von Kayser
German lawyer and businesswoman, native Czech. During her studies in Bonn and Cologne in the 1980s, she was a regular visitor to Art Cologne, the first contemporary art fair in the world. Art Cologne shaped her interest in Contemporary Art. After moving to Berlin/Postupim 20 years ago, she came into intensive contact with Berlin galleries and cultural institutions. This was also the beginning of her journey as an art collector.
