The following day (5 December), the Laureate will visit the cultural centre in Zgorzelec, where she will meet the public and talk about herself, her inspirations and the themes of her work.

As in recent years, the formal evening ceremony for the presentation of the Bridge Prize will take place at the Gerhart Hauptmann Theatre in Görlitz on 4 December (Friday) at 7 p.m. The ceremony is closed to the public, but, as has traditionally been the case, a number of free tickets have been set aside for residents of Zgorzelec and Görlitz who would like to attend this exceptional event. They can be collected from the ticket office of the Natural History Museum at Marienplatz from next Thursday, 26 November, during the institution’s opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Those interested should remember that the number of free tickets is limited.

And the very next day, on Saturday, 5 December, at 10:30 a.m., an open meeting with the Laureate will be held in the conference room of the cultural centre in Zgorzelec, to which the Mayor of Zgorzelec and the chair of the prize jury cordially invite everyone. It will be led by Maria Kret, senior curator at the Municipal Public Library in Zgorzelec and moderator of meetings of the Book Discussion Club, who, during the conversation with Olga Tokarczuk, will try to bring her work, inspirations and views closer to us.

Let us recall that this year’s Bridge Prize laureate is one of the most popular and decorated Polish authors. This year, for her latest novel, “The Books of Jacob”, she received the Nike Literary Award. Accepting this prestigious award, Tokarczuk, who had been among the finalists for the distinction as many as six times and received the Nike statuette in 2008 for her novel “Flights”, said:

Seven years after 2008, when I received the Nike for the novel “Flights”, I am returning to this stage with a book that is, in some sense, similar to that one. It tells the story of other people on the poles seeking their place in a hostile, violent world. The action takes place 250 years ago, but it speaks about the contemporary world. Although I had been writing this book for seven years, it has now become exceptionally relevant. It can be read as a metaphor for what is happening today at the gates of Europe. It reminds us how difficult the process of assimilation and integration is. But it also says that there are no ethnically pure societies, no nations with separate genes, and that what unites us is culture, community and solidarity.

This statement contains everything that lies at the foundation of our binational prize. Confirmation can be found in the jury’s citation, which identified in the writer’s work many aspects important to us, the people of Lower Silesia:

In her novels, essays and short literary forms, Olga Tokarczuk builds literary bridges between people, cultures and generations, especially among the inhabitants of the borderland of three countries: Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. Connected with the borderland since childhood, she looks sensitively at the past, including the Polish-Czech-German past, and addresses emotionally difficult subjects with great tact. In this way, she creates bridges of empathy between people.

Through the strength of her language, combined with delicate empathy and narrative brilliance, she restores a literary voice to multicultural and multinational Lower Silesia as a forgotten cultural region and gives it new intellectual roots. Through her writing, she creates space for various existential and historical experiences, conveying a profound humanistic message.

Olga Tokarczuk’s work broadens the perspective on the new literature of Central and Eastern Europe, becoming a powerful means of communication between people of different nationalities across Europe. The jury sees her as one of the most important builders of literary bridges in the heart of, and from the heart of, Europe.

As in previous years, on the occasion of the meeting, the Municipal Public Library will organise a stand where books by the laureate can be purchased.

Renata Burdosz, independent media cooperation officer at the Zgorzelec City Office/ii