"Przygody na bezludnej wyspie" Macieja Sieńczyka to pierwszy komiks nominowany do Nagrody NIKE
Poland’s annually presented literary award, the Nike, always stirs up excitement as the country’s most presitigious prize in contemporary literature, presented to living authors for books written within the previous year. Only one person is the winner, and for the 2013 edition 20 titles have been nominated in a variety of genres
The full list of nominated titles was announced on the 16th of May, the seven finalists’ names are to be revealed in early September, and the one winner of the Nike statuette and a financial reward of 100 000 PLN is to be proclaimed on the award ceremony day, the 5th of October, 2013. The prize is founded by the Gazeta Wyborcza journal and the Agora Foundation.
Although from the very start of this contest in 1997 its declared aim was the promulgation of Polish literature with “special emphasis on the novel”, the 16 past editions have seen that genre triumph only 7 times. One could quote as exemplary the jury’s recent choice to honour Tadeusz Słobodzianek’s play, Our Class (2010), or the winner of last year’s edition, Książka twarzy (translatable as Face book), a literary essay by Marek Bieńczyk.
As the jury keeps an eye on what’s new on the Polish literary stage, the fate of some of the previous Nike winners proove the genuine and leading quality of the award.
Słobodzianek’s Our Class, the first play to be honoured in the history of the Nike, got translated into numerous languages to date and continues to be successfully staged across the globe. Dorota Masłowska, whose 2006 win with her second novel The Queen’s Spew was highly controversial (mainly because of her young age), has also had her works adapted for the stage and the screen, with a very devout following.
In comparison to previous years, 2013 seems to bring about a change and a revival of the novel, with 9 nominated titles out of the 20 being novels, and a 10th title being a collection of short stories. This year’s competition also marks the first time in the award’s history that a comic book is chosen to run against other literary genres. It is Maciej Sieńczyk’s Przygody na bezludnej wyspie (Adventures on a Deserted Island), a surreal narrative about a nightmare. The main protagonist dreams that he is a shipwreck survivor and, together with accidental companions, he finds himself on a deserted island. The book has been published by the Lampa i Iskra Boża company. Nike award Secretary, Juliusz Kurkiewicz underscored the fact that comic books are considered a part of literature for a long time, and the appearance of a title from this genre on the list of the nominees was only a matter of time.
It could also be noted that curiously enough, in 2013 for the first time in the award’s history women writers constitute half of the nominated authors.
The listed titles are not only fantastic pieces of writing, but they are also very different. Themes range from World War II, a communist Polish People’s Republic and a contemporary Poland taken over with a messianistic nationalist folly. There is love, hate, and the phantoms of Jewish people haunting a popular shopping mall.
The list of nominees announced in May is as follows:
• Justyna Bargielska — "Bach for my baby"
• Joanna Bator — "Ciemno, prawie noc"(Dark, Nearly Night)
• Sylwia Chutnik — "Cwaniary" (The Hustlers)
• Anna Janko — "Pasja według św. Hanki" (The Passion According to St. Hanka)
• Urszula Kulbacka — "Rdzenni mieszkańcy" (Indigneous Dwellers)
• Tadeusz Lubelski — "Historia niebyła kina PRL" (The Inexistent History of Poland's Communist Cinema)
• Kaja Malanowska — "Patrz na mnie, Klaro!" (Look at Me, Klara!)
• Zyta Oryszyn — "Ocalenie Atlantydy" (Saving Atlantis)
• Igor Ostachowicz — "Noc Żywych Żydów" (The Night of the Living Jews)
• Zośka Papużanka — "Szopka"
• Tomasz Pietrzak — "Rekordy" (Records)
• Jerzy Pilch — "Dziennik" (Diary)
• Maciej Sieńczyk — "Przygody na bezludnej wyspie" (Adventures on a Deserted Island)
• Tadeusz Sobolewski — "Człowiek Miron" (The Man Miron)
• Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska — "Mokradełko"
• Wit Szostak — "Fuga" (Fuge)
• Małgorzata Szpakowska — "Wiadomości Literackie prawie dla wszystkich" (Literary News for Nearly Everyone)
• Szczepan Twardoch — "Morfina" (Morphine)
• Krzysztof Varga — "Trociny" (Sawdust)
• Mariusz Zawadzki — "Nowy wspaniały Irak" (Brave New Iraq)
Paulina Schlosser, source: http://wyborcza.pl, 30.07.2013