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Solidarity veteran Modzelewski wins Nike Literary Award

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 06.10.2014 12:01
Historian and former dissident Karol Modzelewski won the annual Nike Literary Award on Sunday night for his recently published autobiography.

Karol
Karol Modzelewski. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

The prize, which is organised by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, is open to both fiction and non-fiction.

“I understood that writing was a serious matter when I was given my first prison sentence for writing,” Modzelewski quipped on Sunday.

He was imprisoned in 1965 together with fellow dissident Jacek Kuron for writing the famed 'Open Letter to the Party', in which the signatories criticised the communist regime.

Modzelewski was later responsible for coming up with the name of Solidarity for the fledgling trade union that emerged in Gdansk in 1980.

He became a member of the trade union, but was imprisoned once again when martial law was introduced in December 1981.

Meanwhile, the Audience Award for the best book of the year went to Ignacy Karpowicz for his novel Fishbones (Osci), which explores the dilemmas – erotic and otherwise - of a family from the Polish intelligentsia.

The Nike Literary Award has first presented in 1997. Named after the Greek goddess of victory, the prize has no connection with the US footwear brand. (nh)

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza

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