Authors
Szczepan Twardoch
Writer and journalist, born in 1979 in Żernica. A sociologist by education, he graduated from the Interdepartmental Individual Humanist Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice. He is an expert on the Silesian language and culture, author of bestselling novels: Morphine (2012), Drach (2014), The King (2016), and The Kingdom (2018). Other major works in his output include the novel Eternal Grunwald (2010), hailed as a literary discovery, a volume of Whales and Moths. Diaries (2015), a collection of short stories entitled Ballad of a Certain Young Girl (2017), as well as a selection of articles and essays: How I Did Not Become a Poet (2019) and The Grand Duchy of Grotesque (2021).
Szczepan Twardoch’s prose is considered as one of the key discoveries in recent Polish literature. Valued extremely highly by the critics, the author won wide recognition with his Morphine, which received the ‘Polityka’ weekly’s ‘Passport’ Award. More than a dozen countries have purchased the copyrights in his works. April 2020 saw the US premiere of The King. Twardoch’s most recent novel, Humility, is a tale about power and submissiveness. Twardoch is also interested in the problem of identity in it multiple aspects; both in his prose and his articles, he tackles the question of national self-identification. The real and fantasy worlds, psychologism and realism, actual and alternative history — are the basis for his narratives.
Twardoch’s accolades include the Kościelski Award, “Brücke Berlin” Preis, the Silesian Literary Laurel, Onet Cultural Award ‘O!Lśnienie’, ‘Nike’ Audience Award, as well as a record number of nominations (for Nike, Gdynia, Angelus, and others). In 2019 he received the German-Polish Samuel Bogumił Linde Literary Award, and in 2022 – the Kazimierz Kutz Award.
Szczepan Twardoch lives in Pilchowice, Upper Silesia.
Phot. Zuza Krajewska
Szczepan Twardoch’s prose is considered as one of the key discoveries in recent Polish literature. Valued extremely highly by the critics, the author won wide recognition with his Morphine, which received the ‘Polityka’ weekly’s ‘Passport’ Award. More than a dozen countries have purchased the copyrights in his works. April 2020 saw the US premiere of The King. Twardoch’s most recent novel, Humility, is a tale about power and submissiveness. Twardoch is also interested in the problem of identity in it multiple aspects; both in his prose and his articles, he tackles the question of national self-identification. The real and fantasy worlds, psychologism and realism, actual and alternative history — are the basis for his narratives.
Twardoch’s accolades include the Kościelski Award, “Brücke Berlin” Preis, the Silesian Literary Laurel, Onet Cultural Award ‘O!Lśnienie’, ‘Nike’ Audience Award, as well as a record number of nominations (for Nike, Gdynia, Angelus, and others). In 2019 he received the German-Polish Samuel Bogumił Linde Literary Award, and in 2022 – the Kazimierz Kutz Award.
Szczepan Twardoch lives in Pilchowice, Upper Silesia.
Phot. Zuza Krajewska
