Book on Nazi persecution of homosexuals and poetry collection win Poland's leading literary prize
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Loading... - Sarah Wilson
- 02 Nov 2022
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Poland’s top annual literary prize has been awarded to Jerzy Jarniewicz for his volume of poetry Mondo cane. The readers’ award, voted for by the public, has been given to Joanna Ostrowska for a book on the persecution of homosexuals by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
The Nike Literary Award is given annually for the best book published in Polish over the last year. Previous recipients have included two Nobel Prize winners, Czesław Miłosz and Olga Tokarczuk (twice).
The event has also often been used to make political statements. Last year saw protests against the treatment of asylum seekers trying to cross the Belarus border and this year the head of the jury, PrzemysÅ‚aw CzapliÅ„ski, spoke out against Poland’s blasphemy law.
“We do not like the ease with which the authorities sentence for offending religious feelings,” said CzapliÅ„ski, who along with other jury members wore a T-shirt referring to article 196 of the criminal code, which punishes offending religious feelings with up to two years in prison.
While the law has long been on the books, it has been increasingly put to use under Poland’s current national-conservative government.
Meanwhile, nominees for the award held up signs at yesterday’s ceremony bearing the name of Mahsa Amini, the woman who died after being detained by Iran’s morality police, sparking large-scale protests against the country’s Islamic regime, reports Newsweek Polska.
Mondo cane (meaning “Dog’s World”, and also the name of an Italian film from 1962) is the 17th collection of poems by Jarniewicz, who was previously nominated for the Nike award in 2008. The work is an “extraordinary exercise”, said CzapliÅ„ski.
In the book, the 64-year-old Jarniewicz “records the deaths of his friends, breakups, departures – and ruthlessly observes his own reactions to [them]…[and] the weaknesses of his own, ever-more-ailing body”, writes the publisher, Biuro Literackie. Read More…
