Tokarczuk Wins the Brueckepreis Award
Writer Olga Tokarczuk has been awarded the Brueckepreis award, an international prize given by the twin towns of Zgorzelec, Poland and Goerlitz, Germany, in recognition for her activity in the field of intercultural understanding and agreement.
Olga Tokarczuk’s writing ‘has broadened literary perspectives on the literature of Central and Eastern Europe and has become a strong means of communication between representatives of different nations’, said Willi Xylander, director of the Bruckerpreis Award Committee, on 10 July 2015.
'In her novels, essays and other short literary forms, Olga Tokarczuk ‘constructs literary bridges between people, cultures and generations, especially those that live on the intersection of the Polish, German and Czech borders.'
– reads the jury’s verdict.
Tokarczuk lives in a village in the Sudetes on the Polish-Czech border, and according to the verdict, the Polish writer ‘throws a sensitive glance at the past, the Polish-German-Czech past as well, and tackles issues with a certain emotional burden. This is how bridges of empathy are being built’.
According to the members of the Bruckerpreis Association the Polish writer gave literary language and a new intellectual basis to the multinational and multicultural area of Lower Silesia.
The award ceremony is scheduled for 4 December 2015 in Goerlitz. Along with the award, Tokarczuk will receive 2,500 euro. The prize has been awarded since 1993 in recognition for the development of democracy and dialogue in Europe. The award was previously given to, among others, Jean-Claude Juncker, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Guenter Grass, Norman Davis, and Vitali Klitschko.
After the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, the cities of Zgorzelec and Goerlitz started intense cooperation. The twin towns applied to be the European Culture Capital, however, without success. In 1998 they formed the Euro City Zgorzelec/ Goerlitz.
Source: PAP, edit. JRK
Translated by Paweł Trzaskowski, 13 July 2015.
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