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Adam Zagajewski (born 1945, Poland) is one of the most important writers in contemporary Polish literature. His work belongs to the literary canon of Poland and can be found in encyclopaedias and school books. As one of the spokesmen of the "Generation 68", whose programme he formulated in the manifesto "The Unpresented World" (1974), Adam Zagajewski can be counted among the modern classics of contemporary Polish literature.
Adam Zagajewski has made his name above all as a poet, novelist and essayist. Close in spirit to the Nobel Prize winners Czeslaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska, Zagajewski’s work is inspired by religion, philosophy and politics. His poetic works are both deeply anchored in history and of great modernity. Original and contemporary, but rooted in tradition, ironic and melancholy, Zagajewski’s poetry represents an ongoing contribution to the modern history of international poetry. His works "conjure up life’s diversity and scrutinize the core of things with ironic distance. His writings are a homage to the unity of the European continent and build bridges between the worlds of Eastern and Western Europe, and America." (Michael Braun)
Publications in German (selection): Die Wiesen von Burgund (Carl Hanser Verlag, 2003), Mystik für Anfänger (Carl Hanser Verlag, 1997), Mystik für Anfänger (Carl Hanser Verlag ,1994)
Awards (selection): Kurt Tucholsky Prize, Stockholm (1985), Andrzej Kijowski Prize, Warsaw (1986), Prix de la Liberté, Paris (1987), Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Prize, New York (1988), Nikolaus Lenau Prize for European Poetry (2000), Konrad Adenauer Foundation Prize for Literature (2002).