Jurij Andruchowycz

Yuri Andrukhovych (born 1960 in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)

In 1985, together with Viktor Neborak and Oleksandr Irvanets, he founded the popular literary performance group “Bu-Ba-Bu” (Burlesque-Bluster-Buffoonery). He has published four poetry books — Sky and Squares (1985), Downtown (1989), Exotic Birds and Plants (1991, new editions 1997 and 2002) and The Songs for A Dead Rooster (2004). Andrukhovych`s prose works, the novels Recreations (1992), Moscoviada (1993), Perverzion (1996) 12 Rings (2003) and Mystery (2007) have had a great impact on readers in Ukraine. The next Andrukhovych’s book has a title Lexicon of Intimate Cities (2011) and the newest one – Fantomas Has Been Burried Here (2015). Andrukhovych also writes literary essays (collected in Disorientation in Locality, 1999 and The Devil is in the Cheese, 2006). Together with Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk he published My Europe (2000 and 2001).
Yuri Andrukhovych’s books are translated and published in Poland, Germany, Canada, USA, Hungary, Finland, Russia, Serbia, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania.
Laureate of five prestigious international literary awards: Herder Preis (Alfred Toepfer Stiftung, Hamburg, 2001), Erich-Maria Remarque Friedenspreis (Osnabrück, 2005), Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung (2006), Central-European Literary Award „Angelus“ (Wroclaw, 2006), Hannah-Arendt-Preis für politisches Denken (Bremen, 2014).

 

Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch (born 1950) – American poet, essayist and literary critic.

A MacArthur Fellow, Hirsch has published The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems (2010), which brings together 35 years of poetry from seven previous collections, including For the Sleepwalkers (1981), Wild Gratitude (1986), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Night Parade (1989), Earthly Measures (1994), On Love (1998), Lay Back the Darkness (2003), and Special Orders (2008). He has also written four prose books, including How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry (1999), a national bestseller, and Poet’s Choice (2006). He edits the series “The Writer’s World” (Trinity University Press). He has edited Theodore Roethke’s Selected Poems (2005) and co-edited The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology (2008). He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature. He taught in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston for 17 years and now serves as President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

 

 

Michael Krüger

Michael Krüger (born 1943) – German publisher, writer, editor, translator, critic and connoisseur of contemporary literature.

While starting his professional career in publishing at Herbig Verlag Berlin, he also studied philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin. In 1968 Krüger became editor at the independent Publishing House Carl Hanser and has been its Executive Director from 1985 until 2013.
Michael Krüger writes short stories and novellas, novels and essays but is best known in Germany as a poet. For over three decades, he is also the editor of the literary journal Akzente. He made his literary debut in 1976 with a poetry collection Reginapoly. His most recent collection of poems At Night beneath Trees – Selected Poems and Das Elfte Gebot – The Eleventh Commandment are also available in English language.
Michael Krüger received numerous awards and honours both for his own work as well for his role as pathfinder and enthusiastic go-between for international literature in Germany. Krüger lives in Munich.

 

 

Jarosław Mikołajewski

Jarosław Mikołajewski (born 1960) – Polish poet, essayist, translator, author of children’s books

Debuted in 1991 with a volume of poetry, A świadkiem śnieg, (Snow Witness), subsequent works include: Kołysanka dla ojca (A Lullaby for Father), Mój dom przestały nawiedzać duchy (When Spirits Ceased to Haunt My Home), Któraś rano (One Morning), Coś mnie zmartwiło, ale zapomniałem (Something Sad, Yet Forgotten). Recipient of the Warsaw Literary Prize (Nagroda Literacką m. st. Warszawy) in 2010 for his latest volume of poetry Zbite szklanki (Broken Tumblers). Recent publications include: Rzymską komedię (Roman Comedy), 2011, and Dziennik-przewodnik po Wiecznym Mieście (Journal & Guide Around the Eternal City).
Head of the Instytut Polski (Polish Institute) in Rome from 2006 to 2012. Amongst others, has translated Dante, Petrarca, Michelangelo, Leopardi, Montaleg, Ungaretti and Pasolini. Awarded the Premio Nazionale per la Traduzione, (National Translation Prize) Italy’s highest award for translators.
Organiser of the three-day Zbigniew Herbert Festival in Sienna in 2008, which also included the unveiling of a special plaque commemorating the poet’s sojourn in the city.

 

 

Mercedes Monmany

Mercedes Monmany (born 1957) – Spanish literary scholar, critic, translator, editor and juror of various literary awards

Born in Barcelona, is a regular contributor to many literary journals, among them “Revista de Libros” as well as a literary supplement to daily “ABC”, publishing essays, reviews and interviews with authors such as Christopher Fry, Margaret Atwood, Claudio Magris or Amos Oz. She is the editor of poetry and essay series at the Huerga & Fierro publishing house. Among the many authors she has translated in to Spanish are Italian writers such as Leonardo Sciascia and Valerio Magrelli, and French Francis Ponge and Philippe Jaccottet. She is the author of several collections of essays and books on literary history and criticism: “Una infancia de escritor”; “Don Quijote en los Cárpatos”, “Por las fronteras de Europa. Narrativa de los siglos XX y XXI”, or “De lo maravilloso y lo real”.

 

Andrzej Franaszek

Jury secretary:
Andrzej Franaszek (born 1971) – Literary critic, essayist

Published works include: Ciemne źródło (Tenebrous Spring), Esej o cierpieniu w twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta (An Essay On Suffering in Zbigniew Herbert’s Work), 2nd edition 2008, Przepustka z piekła. 44 szkice o literaturze i przygodach duszy (Laisses-passer From Hell. 44 Sketches About Literature and Adventures of the Soul), 2010. A member of the Tygodnik Powszechny (Weekly General) editorial staff.