Szczepan Lech Twardoch (; born 23 December 1979 in

Knurów Knurów (; german: Knurow; szl, Knurōw) is a city near Katowice in Silesia, southern Poland. Knurów borders on the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of two million. Knurów is located in the Silesian Highlands, ...

) is a Polish- Silesian writer. He has written a series of best-selling novels such as ''Morphine'' (2012), ''Drach'' (2014),''The King'' (2016), ''The Kingdom'' (2018) and ''Pokora'' (2020). ''The King'' has been turned into a TV series, first broadcast on the Canal+ network. He has won numerous literary prizes among them the Brücke Berlin-Preis and Le Prix du Livre Européen.

Career

Twardoch completed his education in sociology at the Interdepartmental Individual Studies in the Humanities of University of Silesia in Katowice. As an independent journalist, Twardoch's work has appeared in various publications including ''Gazeta Wyborcza'', and ''Rzeczpospolita''. He served as the editor of the literary section for the bimonthly magazine ''Christianitas'' and has been a regular columnist for '' Polityka'' and ''

Wysokie Obcasy ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspaper of record, newspapers of r ...

Extra''. Twardoch's literary career is marked by several accolades. His short story ''The Madness of Rotmistrz von Egern'' was a contender for the Nautilus Prize in 2003, securing fourth place. He won the Nautilus for the best short story of 2006 with ''Rondo'', and in 2008, his ''Epiphany of Vicar Trzaska'' earned the Silver Award of the

Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award ( pl, Nagroda Literacka im. Jerzego Żuławskiego) is the annual award given by the Polish Writers' Association to the best Polish science fiction and fantasy published in the previous year. It is named after an ea ...

. His novel ''Wieczny Grunwald'' received the Distinction of the Józef Mackiewicz Award in 2011. The following year, he was nominated for the

Gdynia Literary Prize Gdynia Literary Prize ( pl, Nagroda Literacka Gdynia) is a Polish literary prize, which is awarded annually to authors of the best books published in the previous year in the prose, poetry, essay and (since 2014) translation categories. It wa ...

for his collection ''Tak jest dobrze''. His novel ''Morphine'' won him the

Polityka's Passport Paszport Polityki (Polityka's Passport) is an annual Polish cultural award presented by the weekly magazine ''Polityka'' since 1993. It is presented in six major categories: literature, film, theatre, classical music, popular music, visual arts ...

for 2012 but was also a finalist for the 2013 Nike Literary Award and received further nominations that year. In 2014, Twardoch published ''Drach'', which was shortlisted for the 2015 Nike Literary Award and won the 2016 German Brücke Berlin Literary Prize. The Koscielski Foundation Prize was awarded to him in 2015. He received the top prize in the "O!lśnienie 2016" poll in the Literature category, organized by Onet.pl in April 2017. His novel ''King'' was nominated for the 2017 Gdynia Literary Prize. In 2019, he was the recipient of the Samuel Bogumil Linde Prize. Noteworthy is the adaptation of Twardoch's work into plays and television, including the 2018 stage premiere of ''King'', directed by Monika Strzępka, and the series ''The King of Warsaw'' produced for Canal+ in 2019, in which Twardoch made a cameo appearance. Other adaptations include ''Drach'', ''Pokora'', and ''Bull'', directed by Robert Talarczyk. In February 2022, he was honored with the Kazimierz Kutz Award, and in November 2023, Twardoch received the

Planet Lem Award A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

for his innovative thinking about reality, celebrated alongside surpassing one million copies of his books sold. Szczepan Twardoch's books, which include paper books, ebooks, and audio files, have collectively surpassed one million sales, with ''Król'' being his most popular novel. His work ''Drach'' has been translated into Silesian. He lives in Pilchowice in Upper Silesia.Bio
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Publications

Novels

* ''Sternberg'',

superNOWA The Independent Publishing House NOWA ( pl, Niezależna Oficyna Wydawnicza NOWA, meaning “new” or “nova”) was the first underground publishing house in the People's Republic of Poland (see samizdat). After opening in 1977, it soon became ...

2007 * ''Epifania wikarego Trzaski'',

Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie is a publishing company founded in 1986 with cooperation with Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany ...

2007 * ''Przemienienie'', Wydawnictwo Dębogóra 2008 * ''Zimne wybrzeża'',

2009 * ''Wieczny Grunwald: powieść zza końca czasów'', Narodowe Centrum Kultury 2010 (Wydawnictwo Literackie 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021) * ''Morfina'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2012 * ''Drach'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2014 * ''Król'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2016 * ''Królestwo'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2018 * ''Pokora'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2020 * '' Chołod'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2022

Short story collections

* ''Obłęd rotmistrza von Egern'',

Fabryka Słów Fabryka Słów (English: ''Factory of Words'') is a Warsaw-based Polish publishing house. It was founded in Lublin in 2001 by Eryk Górski and Robert Łakuta who always wanted to publish good literature they liked reading themselves. It is focused ...

2005 * ''Prawem wilka'', superNOWA 2008 * ''Tak jest dobrze'', Powergraph 2011 * ''Ballada o pewnej panience'', Wydawnictwo Literackie 2017

External links

References