With White Nights longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024, we spoke to its author and translator about their experience of working on the novel together – and their favourite books
Urszula Honek
Urszula Honek, born in 1987, is the author of four poetry books and one short story collection. Her work has been featured in both print and online journals, newspapers, magazines and literary publications
She is the winner of the Grand Prix of the Rainer Maria Rilke Poetry Competition, the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature Award, the Adam Włodek Award and the Stanisław Barańczak Award, as part of the Poznań Literary Prize. For White Nights, she was nominated for the International Grand Continent 2022 Award, the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Award and Polityka’s Passport Award. The English edition, translated by Kate Webster, was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024. In 2023, she won both the Conrad Award and the Kościelski Award, which is given to the most promising Polish writer under the age of 40. Her fourth book of poetry, Poltergeist, will be published later this year. She comes from Racławice, near Gorlice.
All nominated books
A highly artistic study of death encapsulated in moving stories set in Poland's Beskid Mountains region
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