Olga Tokarczuk wins Man Booker International Prize 2018

Polish author Olga Tokarczuk (56) awarded Man Booker International Prize 2018. It makes her first writer from Poland to win this prestigious English-language literary award. She won prize with English translation of her novel Flights, which charts multiple journeys in time, space and human anatomy. It was first published in Polish language in 2007 and was translated into English in 2017 by Jennifer Croft.

Olga Tokarczuk

Olga Tokarczuk is one of most critically acclaimed and commercially successful Polish writers of her generation. She is particularly noted for hallmark mythical tone of her writing. She is trained as psychologist at University of Warsaw. She has published collection of poems, several novels, as well as other books with shorter prose works. Her first novel, The Journey Of The People Of The Book was released in 1993. Her literally work has won several awards, both in her home country Poland and also abroad, including Poland’s most prestigious ‘Nike Literary Award’ twice. She also has co-written screenplay for Polish crime film Spoor, which won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin film festival in 2017. It was also selected as Poland’s entry for best foreign language film at 2018 Oscars.

Man Booker International Prize

Man Booker International Prize is counterpart to Man Booker Prize for English-language novels presented by the Man Group. It is open to books in any language that have been translated into English. It carries monetary award of £50,000 award which is split evenly between writer and translator. The authors are shortlisted by judges from a wide range of disciplines and all with passion for quality fiction.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2018