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 book of poetry. She published her second poetry collection, Pod wezwaniem (tr: Invocation), in 2018, and her third, Zimowanie (tr: Wintering), in 2021. All three were finalists for the K.I. Gałczyński Orfeusz Poetry Award.

Honek’s short story collection, Białe noce (Eng: White Nights), consists of thirteen short stories, which describe various misfortunes that happen to a group of people who grew up together in the same village in the Polish Carpathians. Each story centres 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.

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

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