Zbigniew Rokita

(b. 1989) – a writer, reporter and journalist.

He has published in Tygodnik Powszechny, Polityka, Miesięcznik Znak and Dziennik Gazecie Prawnej. In 2012-18, he edited the bimonthly Nowa Europa Wschodnia. He is a member of the Literary Union.

His debut, ‘Królowie strzelców. Piłka w cieniu imperium’ (Kings of the Goalposts: Football in the Shadow of the Empire) is a book of reportage on the history of football in Eastern Europe. Rokita describes the beginnings and development of the sport from Tsarist Russia to the USSR and the present day. He focuses on the fact that, in the various games, the point is less the sports than the political rivalry. Politics has always been the stakes in sports. For this reason, Rokita calls attention to lesser-known events, such as the world championship of teams outside of FIFA, featuring representatives from national minorities and unacknowledged nations, such as Kurdistan and Abkhazia.

‘Kajś. Opowieść o Górnym Śląsku’ (Somewhere: A Tale of Upper Silesia) is a piece of reportage in which Rokita looks at his native province, both from a historical perspective – he studies the history of Upper Silesia throughout the twentieth century – and a private one, as he also speaks of his family. He shares memories of loved ones who were also eyewitnesses to larger events. Somewhere is also a story of the Silesian identity, of which, the author admits, he was once ashamed. This shame mainly came from ignorance, which Rokita’s book amends.

‘Aglo: Banką po Śląsku’ (Aglo: Silesia by Tram) is a book whose plot follows the tram no. 7. The route of the famous Number 7 covers a good part of the Silesian agglomeration – Katowice, Chorzów, Świętochłowice and Bytom. During this modest trip, the narrator stares out the window and makes his observations. These mainly concern the history of Upper Silesia, specific people tied to the region, and the root of the Silesian identity. Rokita raises this topic once more, reconstructs how the identity has changed in the twenty-first century, what it was, and what it is now for Silesians and for him. Again, this takes the form of essay/reportage.

Rokita is also involved in the theatre. His book debut, Kings of the Goalposts…, was staged at the Nowy Theatre in Zabrze (dir. Piotr Ratajczak, script: Piotr Rowicki). In 2021, he wrote a play, Nikaj, which had its world premiere at the Zagłębia Theatre in Sosnowiec. In 2023, Korez Theatre staged ‘Weltmajstry’ (World Champions, dir. Robert Talarczyk), and in 2024, the same theatre premiered his one-woman show, ‘Kocham Cię, proszę pana’ (I Love You, Sir, dir. Robert Talarczyk, featuring Barbara Lubos). The Śląski Theatre hosted the premiere of Tkocze (The Weavers, dir. Maja Kleczewska), to which he contributed, in 2025.

In 2020, he won the 8^th edition of the Leopold Unger Scholarship Competition. In 2021, for Somewhere: A Tale of Upper Silesia, he received the Nike Literary Award and a nomination for the Angelus Central European Literary Award. In 2024, he received the Toruń and Göttingen Samuel Bogumił Linde Partner Cities Award.

He has been translated into Ukrainian and Silesian.