Wiesław Myśliwski (Polish pronunciation: ; 25 March 1932 – 29 March 2026) was a Polish novelist. He was a two-time recipient of the Nike Award, the most important literary prize for Polish literature.
Life and career Myśliwski was born to a middle class family in Dwikozy, near Sandomierz and raised in Ćmielów, where his father had participated in the Polish-Soviet War and became a local official after being demobilized. In her youth, his mother was an active member of , a rural young person's organization founded by .
After the war, he attended secondary schools in Sandomierz; graduating in 1951. He then studied philology at the Catholic University of Lublin, taking his degree in 1956. From then until 1976, he worked on the editorial staff at the (People's Publishing Cooperative).
From 1976 to 1999, he was Editor-in-chief of the cultural quarterly Regiony, and later contributed to the literary bi-weekly . From 1997, he chaired the jury for the prize. He was a member of the Polish Writers' Union from 1971 to 1983.
Myśliwski died on 29 March 2026, at the age of 94.
Works
In his novels and plays Myśliwski concentrated on life in the Polish countryside. He was a two-time winner of the Nike Award (Polish equivalent of the Booker Prize) for Horizon (1996) and A Treatise on Shelling Beans (2006). Until Myśliwski's death, only Myśliwski and Olga Tokarczuk have won the award twice.
His first novel translated into English was The Palace, rendered by Ursula Phillips. Bill Johnston's English translation of Kamień na kamieniu, published by Archipelago Books as Stone Upon Stone, won the 2012 Best Translated Book Award.
Novels 1967: Nagi sad, Warsaw, Publisher: PIW 1970: Pałac (translated by Ursula Phillips as The Palace in 1991), Warsaw, Publisher:PIW 1984: Kamień na kamieniu (translated by Bill Johnston as Stone Upon Stone in 2011), Warsaw, Publisher:PIW 1996: Widnokrąg, Warsaw, Publisher: Muza 2006: Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli (translated by Bill Johnston as A Treatise on Shelling Beans in 2013), Kraków, Publisher: Znak 2013: Ostatnie rozdanie, Kraków, Publisher: Znak 2018: Ucho Igielne, Kraków, Publisher: Znak
Dramas 1973: Złodziej 1978: Klucznik 1988: Drzewo, Szczecin, Publisher: Wydawnictwo Glob 2000: Requiem dla gospodyni, Warsaw, Publisher: Muza
Essays and interviews 2003: Kres kultury chłopskiej Bochnia, Prowincjonalna Oficyna Wydawnicza 2021: Myśliwski - Bocheński Rozmowy istotne, Łódź, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego 2022: W środku jesteśmy baśnią : mowy i rozmowy, Kraków, Znak
Selected awards and honors 1996: Nike Award, Widnokrąg 1997: Władysław Reymont Prize, Widnokrąg 2005: Golden Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis 2006: Nike Award, Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli 2007: Gdynia Literary Prize, Widnokrąg 2012: Best Translated Book Award, Stone Upon Stone (Kamień na kamieniu) The 2012 Best Translated Book Award Winners, Chad Post, Three Percent, 4 May 2012. 2012: PEN Translation Prize, Stone Upon Stone 2012: Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta 2012: Honorary doctorate from the University of Rzeszów 2022: Honorary doctorate from the Jagiellonian University
See also Polish literature List of Polish-language writers
References
External links