Poet, novelist, translator, essayist, honorary doctor of the Jagiellonian University.

He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award and the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature. He is considered as one of the leading poets of the Generation of ‘68’ or the Polish New Wave (Polish: Nowa fala) and is one of Poland’s most prominent contemporary poets.

Translated into many languages, Zagajewski enjoys international recognition. Signatory of the Letter of 59, opposition activist in the Polish People’s Republic, censored in 1976–1990. In 1982–2002, he remained in exile in France and the USA, lecturing at the Committee of Social Thought at the University of Chicago and at the University of Huston. A member of the editorial staff of Zeszyty Literackie, Zagajewski won the most prestigious literary prizes, including the Princess of Asturias Awards (2017), the Griffin Prize (2016), Heinrich Mann Prize, Neustadt International Prize for Literature (2004, the “small Nobel Prize”), the Chinese Zhongkun Literary Award (“the Chinese Nobel Prize”), the Petr Krdu European Poetry Award (2010). Moreover, Zagajewski is the laureate of the Kościelski Award (1975), Kurt Tucholsky Award (1985), Andrzej Kijowski Award, Prix de Liberté (1987). and other awards and distinctions in the field of culture. Decorated, among others, with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for outstanding achievements in creative work and journalistic and publishing activities (2012), the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2007), and the Gold and Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture “Gloria Artis” (2005), Zagajewski is Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor (2016) for spreading the values ​​that France defends.

fot. Maja Wodecka