Nike Award

Nike Award
2005 Nike Award ceremony with former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Awarded for	best book of a single living author writing in the Polish language published the previous year
Country	Poland
Presented by	Gazeta Wyborcza and Agora Foundation
Reward(s)	PLN 100,000 ($25,000)
First awarded	1997; 25 years ago (1997)

The Nike Literary Award (Polish: Nagroda Literacka „Nike”) is one of the most prestigious awards for Polish literature. Established in 1997 and funded by Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's second largest daily paper, and the consulting company NICOM, it is conferred annually in October for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish published the previous year. It is open for nominees from all literary genres, including non-fiction essays and autobiographies. Each year, a nine-member jury selects the laureate in a three-stage process. Twenty official nominees are accepted in May, out of which seven finalists are declared in September. The final decision does not take place until the day of the award ceremony in October. The award consists of a statuette referring to the Greek goddess Nike, designed by the prominent Polish sculptor Kazimierz Gustaw Zemła, and a cash prize of currently PLN 100,000 (ca. $25,000).

In addition to the main jury award, there is an audience award based on the outcome of a vote on the seven official finalists conducted by Gazeta Wyborcza. The verdicts of the audience and jury have converged only occasionally (2000, 2001, 2004, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2021). Two laureates of the award have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature: Czesław Miłosz (1980) and Olga Tokarczuk (2018). Tokarczuk and Wiesław Myśliwski are the only individuals to date to have received the Nike Award twice.

Laureates[]

Title and details of English translation stated where available.

Jury award[]

Year	Picture	Author	Title	English title	Genre(s)
2021	Zbigniew Rokita		Kajś. Opowieść o Górnym Śląsku	Kajś: A Tale of Upper Silesia	Reportage
2020	Radek Rak		Baśń o wężowym sercu	The Snake Heart Fairy Tale	Fantasy novel
2019	Mariusz Szczygieł		Nie ma	No There	Reportage
2018	Marcin Wicha		Rzeczy, których nie wyrzuciłem	Things I Didn't Throw Out	Collection of essays
2017	Cezary Łazarewicz		Żeby nie było śladów. Sprawa Grzegorza Przemyka	So There'll Be No Traces. Grzegorz Przemyk's Case	Reportage
2016	Bronka Nowicka	–	Nakarmić kamień	To Feed a Stone	Poetry
2015	Olga Tokarczuk		Księgi Jakubowe	The Books of Jacob	Novel
2014	Karol Modzelewski		Zajeździmy kobyłę historii. Wyznania poobijanego jeźdźca[1]	We'll Ride the Mare of History to the Ground: Confessions of a Bruised Rider	Autobiography
2013	Joanna Bator		Ciemno, prawie noc [2]	Dark, Almost Night	Novel
2012	Marek Bieńczyk		Książka twarzy	Book of Faces	Collection of essays
2011	Marian Pilot		Pióropusz	Quill Feathers	Novel
2010	Tadeusz Słobodzianek	–	Nasza klasa	Our Class	Play
2009	Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki		Piosenka o zależnościach i uzależnieniach	A Song of Dependencies and Addictions	Poetry
2008	Olga Tokarczuk		Bieguni	Flights	Novel
2007	Wiesław Myśliwski		Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli	Treatise on Shelling Beans	Novel
2006	Dorota Masłowska		Paw królowej	The Queen's Peacock	Novel
2005	Andrzej Stasiuk		Jadąc do Babadag	Travelling to Babadag	Novel
2004	Wojciech Kuczok		Gnój	Muck	Novel
2003	Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz		Zachód słońca w Milanówku	Sunset in Milanówek	Poetry
2002	Joanna Olczak-Roniker		W ogrodzie pamięci	In the Garden of Memory	Novel
2001	Jerzy Pilch		Pod Mocnym Aniołem	The Strong Angel Inn	Novel
2000	Tadeusz Różewicz		Matka odchodzi	Mother Is Leaving	Poetry
1999	Stanisław Barańczak		Z chirurgiczną precyzją	Surgical Precision	Poetry
1998	Czesław Miłosz		Piesek przydrożny	Road-side Dog	Poetry
1997	Wiesław Myśliwski		Widnokrąg	Horizon	Novel

Audience award[]

Most nominations[]

• 10 nominations – Jerzy Pilch
• 8 nominations – Ewa Lipska, Andrzej Stasiuk
• 7 nominations – Tadeusz Różewicz
• 6 nominations – Julia Hartwig, Jacek Podsiadło, Olga Tokarczuk, Adam Zagajewski
• 5 nominations – Marek Bieńczyk, Jacek Dehnel, Piotr Matywiecki, Czesław Miłosz, Ryszard Przybylski, Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz, Magdalena Tulli
• 4 nominations – Wojciech Bonowicz, Michał Głowiński, Henryk Grynberg, Ignacy Karpowicz, Urszula Kozioł, Dorota Masłowska, Marcin Świetlicki, Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, Krzysztof Varga, Michał Witkowski
• 3 nominations – Justyna Bargielska, Joanna Bator, Sylwia Chutnik, Włodzimierz Kowalewski, Zbigniew Kruszyński, Wiesław Myśliwski, Joanna Olczak-Roniker, Tomasz Różycki, Małgorzata Szejnert, Wisława Szymborska, Adam Wiedemann

See also[]

• Polish literature
• List of Polish writers
• List of Polish poets
• Angelus Award
• Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award
• Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage

References[]

External links[]

• Some information in English
• Official site (Polish)