2017
2017
Grand Prize
Krzysztof Piskorski
Born in 1982 in Wrocław. A fan of fantasy/science fiction, popular science and technology since childhood. He studied archeology and computer science, worked, among others, as a computer journalist, copywriter, translator and game developer. He currently lives in Wrocław with his wife and daughter.
As a writer, he is known for unusual genre blends, reaching for historical plots, and building detailed, fantastic worlds. Author of nine published books and over a dozen short stories. He made his literary debut in 2004 in the monthly ‘Nowa Fantastyka’, and his first novel was published in 2005 "Wygnaniec" - the beginning of a trilogy in which he created an original fantasy world inspired by the traditional culture of the Arabian Peninsula. The collection from 2007 called "Poczet dziwów miejskich", in turn, referred to the local color of Wrocław. Another novel, the two-volume "Zadra", set during the Napoleonic Wars, brought Piskorski in 2009 a nomination for the Janusz A. Zajdel Award and a Gold Distinction of Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award. "Krawędź czasu", published in 2011, was again nominated for both awards. In 2014, he won the Janusz A. Zajdel Award in the novel category and the Gold Distinction of the J. Żuławski Award for "Cienioryt" - a fantasy story under the sign of cloak-and-dagger, set in a port city, where light and shadow are governed by rules as complicated as in the royal court. This book has been published in Russian, while the author's next novel, "Czterdzieści i cztery", reaching back to the alternative history and the era of Polish national poets and the Great Emigration, received in 2017 both the Janusz A. Zajdel Award and the Grand Prize of Literary Jerzy Żuławski Award.
(2017)
Czterdzieści i cztery
(Forty and four)
This time the author develops a vision of a world in which extraordinary technology is mixed with Slavic magic in the era of national uprisings and the Great Emigration.
It is 1844. Eliza Żmijewska, a poet and the last priestess of a forgotten Slavic deity, arrives in England, cut off by a blockade. Eliza is to find the industrialist Konrad Załuski, whom his countrymen blame for the fall of the uprising in Lithuania. She intends to execute the judgment issued by the Emigration Council and Juliusz Słowacki on him. But is Załuski really guilty? Or maybe he fell victim to a game of two seers?
In a world where the energy of the vacuum changed history, there are no simple answers. The Ether gates connected Europe with parallel worlds, and wars and uprisings took a new course. Towiańczycy, revolutionists, Luddists, mad prophets and poets plot multi-level intrigues. Armies, secret police and naval fleets await the sign. Exotic creatures and alien forces come from the outworld colonies of France, England and Russia. Something breeds in the dark alleys of cities...
Poles see everything as an opportunity to overturn the system of hostile powers. Żmijewska discovers, however, that there is more to the stake than just the fate of her country.
(Source: lubimyczytac.pl)
2017
Gold Distinction
Radek Rak
Born in 1987. A veterinarian, he works in his profession. A native of Dębica, currently a Cracovian by accident. A lover of the Low Beskids and good tea. Author of few short stories published mainly in monthly ‘Nowa Fantastyka’, and two novels – "Kocham cię, Lilith" and "Puste niebo". For the second of them, he was nominated for Zajdel Award and won the Gold Distinction of Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award. He encountered Żuławski himself for the first time in primary school, when he was driven to his grave at the military cemetery in Dębica during the lessons of history or Polish language; another meeting, definitely more fruitful, took place a few years later, while reading his novel "Na Srebrnym Globie".
(2017)
Puste niebo
(Empty sky)
Cruel and dark, sometimes cheerful and sometimes sad, a novel about eastern Poland in the time of Bruno Schulz, airships, rabbis and the revolution. Empty Heaven guides the reader through the underground, nooks and corners of old Lublin, in a tasteful language full of leśmianisms, it tells a story full of eroticism about people, the city and the world that no longer exist.
***
The protagonist is Tołpi, a country boy who in the first pages seemed to me a failure who would like to shine. In order to make up for the shortcomings and at the same time to appeal to a certain girl, he steals the moon from the sky. However, the carefree Tołpi shattered the captured celestial body. The lack of a moon has terrible consequences for all mankind, so the unfortunate person has to go to Lublin to see a Jew who is smelting the moons. The matter is not easy at all, the more so that there are everywhere communists and a devil with the graceful name Zapalniczka.
The novel is written in a wonderful language that reflects the old Polish language and rural influences. It abounds in scenes where dreams are mixed with reality, and ghosts and fairy-tale creatures flit through the streets and undergrounds of the old city on a par with revolutionaries. There are also a lot of erotic scenes, especially in the second half of the book, and they are so colorful that they can hurt the more sensitive. However, it is worth remembering that the main character is at an age when hormones are raging, and the mind and body have their own laws.
(Source: lubimyczytac.pl)
2017
Silver Distinction
Jacek Inglot
Born in 1962. Graduated from Polish philology at the University of Wroclaw. He worked as a teacher, later as an editor and literary critic. He lives in Wrocław.
He made his debut with the short story "Dira necessitas". Author of the novels "Inquisitor" (1996) and "Quietus" (1997), both nominated for the Janusz A. Zajdel Award, and the collection of short stories "Bohaterowie do wynajęcia" (2004, together with Andrzej Drzewiński). In 2009, he published a fantasy fairy tale for children, "Eri i smok". In 2015, a collection of stories entitled "Sodomion" was released, and in 2016 a novel-diptych "Polska 2.0", showing alternative visions of Poland of the future.
He published short stories and journalistic texts in "Feniks", "Nowa Fantastyka", "Sfinks" and "Playboy".
Inglot is also a mainstream writer. His first novel on contemporary topics is "Porwanie sabinek" (2008), and in 2012, "Wypędzony", a book about Wrocław in 1945, was published.
(2017)
Polska 2.0
(Poland 2.0)
We do live in strange times, and what is happening in the world today is beyond our imagination. Are you sure? Jacek Inglot draws two not-so-improbable visions of the future. In what direction are we going? What will Poland be like in 20 years? In a story told in a colorful, juicy and suggestive language, we can move back in time to see if we have a bright future or an apocalypse. Or maybe nothing will change?
In two terrifying fictional visions of Poland we find answers to the following questions:
Will we be flooded by immigrants? Will Europe do anything to stop the spread of terrorism? Will there be religious wars and the domination of Islam? Will the European Union fall apart? Will we exhaust natural resources and introduce forced euthanasia? Will Putin in the east rebuild the Russian Empire that no one will be able to oppose? Will the United States lose its dominant position in the world? Will we lead to a Polish-Polish war?
Jacek Inglot got into the literary time machine and traveled twice to 2037. The results are alternative stories of the future. In the first version, Poland is a superpower waging a risky game for domination in the eastern part of the continent, in the second it experiences a deep decline and plunges into the abyss. The author tells about two possible scenarios of future events, completely different, but equally credible.
A political fiction that raises unsettling questions not only about the future but also about the present. A fascinating story about the future of Poland, not avoiding harsh, controversial judgments.
(Source: lubimyczytac.pl)