Urszula Honek

(b. 1987) – poet and prose writer.

Urszula Honek’s poems, especially those in the volumes “Zimowanie” (Wintering) and “Poltergeist”, are usually short, laconic, but rich in meaning – sometimes communicated in sequences of free associations, at other times in precise formulas. In her lyrical strategy, the author does not avoid mimesis: her work usually reconstructs reality, presents the reader with a concrete image of the Polish countryside, the provinces in the last decades, and their residents. The texts undoubtedly stand out due to their sensuality. They speak of phenomena taking place on the boundaries between reality and dreams, equally often of death as of life. Importantly and notably, they are rooted in relatively current Polish reality.

Honek’s prose debut was the 2022 short story collection entitled “Białe noce” (published in English as White Nights). The prose is loosely but meaningfully related to the author’s poetry: it testifies to a careful observation of everyday provincial life in Poland and the – sometimes inexplicable, sometimes absolutely uncomplicated – peculiarity of the people and events described. The book’s characters are residents of a small, remote town in the Beskid Mountains; they seem ordinary, but they all have their own, at times extremely poignant, story. In her descriptions, Honek aims to accurately diagnose the situation of the Polish province, against the general tendency to romanticise and infantilise rural areas in these kinds of literary portrayals.

In 2016, Honek’s debut poetry volume “Sporysz” (Ergot) was included in the final of the Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński Orpheus Poetry Prize; in the same year, it was nominated for the award of the 12^th “Złoty Środek Poezji” (“Golden Mean of Poetry”) National Literary Competition. For her second book, “Pod wezwaniem” (Dedicated To), the poet received the Kraków Book of the Month Award and, again, was in the final of the Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński Orpheus Poetry Prize (2019). For her third poetry book, Wintering, she received the Stanisław Barańczak Grant as part of the Poznań Literary Award, a nomination for the Gdynia Literary Prize and a third Orpheus nomination (2022). The short story collection White Nights brought her a nomination for the Premio Grand Continent and the Polityka’s Passport Award (2022). Kate Webster’s translation of White Nights was on the longlist of the International Booker Prize and the shortlist of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation (2024).