Urszula Honek © Dominik Musiałek

 

Urszula Honek [Poland]

Born in 1987 in Poland, Urszula Honek is a celebrated Polish poet and writer.

In 2016, Honek published Sporysz, her first poetry book, which was the finalist of the K.I. Gałczyński Orfeusz Poetry Award. In 2018, her second poetry collection, Pod wezwaniem, was also the finalist of the K.I. Gałczyński Orfeusz Poetry Award, as well as her third poetry collection, Zimowanie, in 2021.

Honek’s short story collection, White Nights, translated into English by Kate Webster, consists of thirteen short stories, which describe various misfortunes happening to people of the group which grew together in the same village in Polish Carpathians. Each story centres itself around a different character and how they manage to cope, survive or exist despite (and often in ignorance of) the poverty, disappointment, tragedy, despair, brutality and general sense of futility that surrounds them. It was translated to English by Kate Webster.  It was nominated for the 2024 International Booker Prize, and was awarded the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Prize and the Kościelski Award in 2023.

She is the winner of the Grand Prix of the Rainer Maria Rilke Poetry Competition, the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature Award, the Adam Włodek Award and the Stanisław Barańczak Award, as part of the Poznań Literary Prize. She has held scholarships from the Maria Anna Siemieńska Grazella Foundation (2016), as well as from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2017).

Honek’s latest work, her fourth book of poetry Poltergeist, was published in 2024.