Nike Award 2024 – who won. Urszula Kozioł is the laureate

Krzysztof Siwczyk, chairman of the jury, said about the awarded volume that “existential tension bursts its lines.” The “great lady of Polish literature”, i.e. the laureate, writes in it about old age, the emptiness in which she immersed herself after the death of her husband, the fading of memories and the passing of memory. This volume, in his opinion, is “the truth of existence in a limit state” and “an addition to the threads present in all his works.”

Urszula Kozioł was born in 1931 in Rakówka near Biłgoraj, in the Lublin region. My parents were teachers whose lives were filled with social work. She passed her high school final exams in Zamość in 1950.

She worked as a teacher in Bystrzyca Kłodzka (1954-56), then in schools in Wrocław (1958-64). She headed the literary department of “Poglądy”, she was the editor of the Wrocław monthly “Odra” and she has been associated with this magazine for years, she served as the director of the Wrocław Cultural Center.

She made her debut as a poet in 1954 in the press. He also wrote dramas, plays for children, columns and radio plays. Volumes of her poems were published in Poland primarily by Wydawnictwo Literackie, and her latest book of poetry, “Raptularz”, was published last year by the National Publishing Institute.

Urszula Kozioł won the Nike Literary Award for the first time, but it was not her first nomination for this award. She was nominated in 2006 for the book “Supliki”, in 2008 – for the volume “Przelotem”, in 2015 – for “Klangor”, and in 2017 – for “Ucieczki”.

The winner of the 2024 Nike Literary Award received PLN 100,000. PLN and a statuette designed by Gustaw Zemła.

The organizers of the award are “Wyborcza” and the Nike Literary Award Foundation, and the founder is the Agora Foundation.