Apart from the main prize, the Honorary Award and the High Calibre Readers’ Award are also given out. The Honorary Award is bestowed upon a Polish or foreign author who the organizers deem to be an outstanding artist of the genre. This year, Swedish author Henning Mankell will receive the award. He is one of the most popular crime book authors in the world. His series of crime novels, published from 1991 to 2013 and featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander, brought him popular acclaim outside of Sweden. In his novels, Mankell tackles the problems afflicting modern society, such as apartheid, the mafia, immigration, cyber-terrorism, and the threats of globalization and international business. Due to poor health, Mankell is unable to participate in the gala.
As part of the festival, numerous other events have been organised, such as meetings with authors, panel discussions, lectures and film screenings. In addition, Crime Literary Workshops with the festival's laureates, and a Librarian Crime Conference, during which library staff can learn about crime literature, will take place. Visitors can also view an exhibition - Crime Wrocław, which will displayed from 15th May until 6th July.
In recent years, the festival guests have included: May Sjöwall, Camilla Läckberg, Liza Marklund, Jan Costin Wagner, Jo Nesbo, Johan Theorin, Anne Holt, Kathy Reichs, Walter Mosley, Mons Kallentoft and leading Polish thriller stars. For this year’s edition, attendance has been confirmed by Marcin Baran, Mariusz Czubaj, Michael Katz Krefeld, Tomasz Man, Zygmunt Miłoszewski, Marta Mizuro, Vincent V. Severski, and Marcin Świetlicki, among others.
Source: festiwal.portalkryminalny.pl, ed. & translated: Katarzyna Maksimiuk, 21.05.2014
