Michał Witkowski

(1975) – writer and columnist.

Michał Witkowski made his debut with a critically acclaimed collection of short stories, “Copyright” (2001). The collection uses various styles and narrative techniques to address one of the key themes of contemporary prose in Poland: the struggle to come to terms with the myth of the West as a vibrant world of consumerism.

Witkowski gained fame with his novel “Lubiewo” (Lovetown, 2005), the most radical and uncompromising coming-out story in the history of Polish prose. The book tackles the fate of gay people in the late communist era, before liberation. The aesthetics of the novel are camp, the language outrageous, vulgarised, and at the same time refined.

In his subsequent books, the collection of short stories “Fototapeta” (Photo Wallpaper, 2006) and the novel “Barbara Radziwiłłówna z Jaworzna-Szczakowej” (Barbara Radziwiłłówna of Szczakowa, Jaworzno, 2007), Witkowski continues and develops the themes from his previous two books: childhood experiences in the late communist era, the specificity of the political, social and economic transition after 1989, and the “wild” capitalism that emerged in Poland in the 1990s.

His novel “Margot” (2009) features a whole gallery of colourful characters, with the main protagonists at the forefront. The titular Margot is a promiscuous woman who drives a refrigerated lorry; Waldek Mandaryna is a simple lad from the countryside who becomes a celebrity after taking part in a reality show. Witkowski presents a grotesque portrayal of the world of celebrities and TV stars, but also touches on the subject of what happens when values ​​and identities are completely eroded, generating cognitive uncertainty and hindering life choices.

In the years that followed, Witkowski turned to genre prose, experimenting with crime fiction in the novels “Drwal” (The Woodcutter, 2011) and “Zbrodniarz i dziewczyna” (The Criminal and the Girl, 2014). These books are not crime stories in the literal sense, but humorous variations transposing the genre. In “Drwal”, the criminal element is merely a plot catalyst – the novel itself is a kind of anthology of the themes and motifs typical of Witkowski’s writing. It includes a gay storyline, flashbacks to the late communist era, and sociological commentary on contemporary events. “Zbrodniarz i dziewczyna” is closer to the conventions of a traditional crime novel, although it also contains a lot of sophisticated humour, self-referentiality and intertextual play.

For several years, Witkowski returned to the themes of the provinces (and escaping from them), generational trauma, the myth of the Western European paradise, and defining and building identity, which is explored in “Fynf und cwancyś” (Eleven-Inch, 2015) and “Wymazane” (Erased, 2017). In 2022, he returned to dark crime with the novel “Tango”, featuring Inspector Piątek as an investigator of disappearances and murders, and one of the victim’s lovers, a gigolo, as the suspect.

Witkowski’s most recent book, titled “Wiara” (Faith, 2023), is the first part of his autobiography.

Witkowski has received numerous awards and distinctions in various literary contests. He has been nominated five times for the Nike Literary Award: in 2006 for “Lubiewo”, in 2007 for “Fototapeta”, in 2012 for “Drwal”, in 2018 for “Wymazane” and in 2024 for “Wiara”; the latter won the readers’ vote. In 2006, he also received the Gdynia Literary Prize for “Lubiewo”, and was nominated for the same prize in 2008 for “Barbara Radziwiłłówna z Jaworzna-Szczakowa”. “Drwal” was shortlisted for the Angelus Central European Literature Award in 2012. He has also been nominated three times for the Polityka Passport Award in the literature category, which he won in 2007.