The Zbigniew Herbert Foundation has announced the winner of the 2025 edition of the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award. This year’s laureate is the Canadian poet Anne Carson. The strategic partners of the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award 2025 are the PZU Foundation and Liebrecht & wooD Poland.
Anne Carson – a Canadian poet, essayist, and professor of classics – is one of the most renowned writers in the world. Her successive volumes, regarded by critics as masterpieces, are both innovative and deeply rooted in tradition. Like Zbigniew Herbert, Carson continuously draws on dialogue with the past as the source of her creative work. Her poetry is marked by both clarity and great erudition. The frequent references to ancient culture in Carson’s work would have resonated strongly with the author of the poem Why the Classics and the essay collection Labyrinth on the Sea.
Jury member Krystyna Dąbrowska commented:
“Her work is like a philosophical meditation, juxtaposing personal experience and her own voice with the voices of predecessors. She explores the nature of time, love, desire, loss… and does so with intellectual subtlety, emotional directness, and often with a sense of humor – the best defense against banality.”
Carson’s books available in Polish include Decreation, Autobiography of Red, The Beauty of the Husband, and Eros the Bittersweet, her work was translated by Renata Lis, Olga Kubińska, Maciej Topolski, and Natalia de Barbaro, among others.
The Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award is a prestigious global literary honor – primarily in the field of poetry. Established in 2013, it recognizes outstanding artistic and intellectual achievements that reflect the values central to the work of Zbigniew Herbert. Previous laureates include W.S. Merwin, Charles Simic, Ryszard Krynicki, Lars Gustafsson, Breyten Breytenbach, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Agi Mishol, Durs Grünbein, Yusef Komunyakaa, Marianna Kijanowska, Tomas Venclova, and Yang Lian.
The laureate was selected by a jury composed of poets, essayists, translators, and publishers: Krystyna Dąbrowska (Poland), Edward Hirsch (USA), Michael Krüger (Germany), Mercedes Monmany (Spain), and Aleš Šteger (Slovenia).
The Herbert Award will be presented to Anne Carson during a ceremony on June 11th 2025 in Warsaw. A live broadcast of the ceremony will be available on the social media channels of the Zbigniew Herbert Foundation and the National Library of Poland.
Partners of the Zbigniew Herbert Foundation:
- The National Library of Poland – co-organizer of the Zbigniew Herbert Award ceremony
- PZU Foundation – Strategic Partner of the 2025 Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award
- Liebrecht & wooD Poland – Strategic Partner of the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award 2025, Investor & High Culture Promoter at Centrum Praskie Koneser
- Polish Radio – Media Patron
Further details
Sylwia Olczak, PRIMUM PR, email: s.olczak@primum.pl, 608 072 086
