Born in 1966 in Złotoryja, Poland, Szczygieł is a reporter of “Gazeta Wyborcza” daily (since 1990). A graduate of the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Warsaw. Winner of the Melchior 2004 Prize for his reports on Czechoslovakia and its people in the Melchior Wańkowicz Competition. His first works were published in the “Na przełaj” weekly (1985). Author of a collection of reportage writing on Poland Sunday that Happened on Wednesday (Niedziela, która zdarzyła się w środę, 1996). His texts have been published in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and the USA. In 1995–2001, Mariusz Szczygieł hosted his own talk-show (“Na każdy temat”, TV Polsat) for which he received several awards. He is an editor of a reporters’ feature “Duży Format” in “Gazeta Wyborcza” daily (since 2004) and together with Wojciech Tochman and Paweł Goźliński runs the Polish Reportage Institute. Two of his texts recently appeared in “La Reppublica”.
Titles represented:
- Gottland
- 20 Years of New Poland in Reportage Writing
Gottland
Gottland, reportage, Czarne 2006 & 2010, 232 pages, ISBN: 83-89755-62-9
Le Figaro: Gottland is not a book, it is a gem.
Libération: Extraordinary, hypnotizing and disturbing tales.
Rights sold:
- Russia (NLO),
- Czech Republic (Dokoran – trade & audio-book, Narodni Divadlo v Ostrave & Svandovo divadlo na Smichove Praha – theatre rights)
- Italy (Nottetempo)
- Germany (Suhrkamp)
- Hungary (Europa)
- France (Actes Sud)
- Bulgaria (Paradox)
- Spain (Acantilado)
- Ukraine (Grani-T)
- Slovenia (Sanje)
Manuscripts available in German, French, Italian, Russian and Czech
Prizes:
- nominated for the Nike Literary Prize 2007
- Prix l’Amphi for the French edition
- Europe Book Prize – Le prix du livre europeen 2009
- Gratias Agit Czech State Award
“An intelligent, captivating and much needed book. Through his tale of lives of individual people, Mariusz Szczygieł reports on the complicated history of our Southern neighbours. Fascinated with their culture and morale, their sense of irony, humour and sarcasm, he gives an account of how the Czechs dealt with `history which was let off the leash`. We are reading those stories from the perspective of our destiny and that makes the reading even more captivating. Our experience was similar yet so much different. A fascinating book”.
Adam Michnik
“A great book. Deeply depressing presentation of the Czech people`s fate in the 20th century (it also covers the new century which is equally depressing). What I have always found fascinating in the fate of those people was the constant, dynamic, tragic and yet amusing ambiguity. Mariusz Szczygieł is well versed in the Polish school of reportage writing and he applies his method to this specific Czech ambiguity. The effect is very strong, original and surprising. For me most of those images have an evoking power. It`s been very long since I made an equally intense journey to my youthful experiences, questions and fascinations. Yet the reading left me with a deep sense of sadness. I`m waiting for the second part of those reports – essays-stories (the genre is not fully defined) hoping that some catharsis is possible and that there is a way out of this trap of Central European fate”.
Agnieszka Holland
20 Years of New Poland in Reportage Writing. Selection and commentary Mariusz Szczygieł
20 lat nowej Polski w reportażach według Mariusza Szczygła, reportage, Czarne 2009, 472 pages, ISBN 978-83-7536-143-8
Rights available: World
A personal selection of texts about where New Poland began and where it is now. Not the Poland seen in newspapers or on TV, but that which had to redefine its mentality overnight.
Mariusz Szczygieł
Authors include: Irena Morawska, Joanna Sokolińska, Joanna Wojciechowska , Karol Podgórski, Włodzimierz Nowak , Wojciech Staszewski, Edyta Gietka, Ewa Winnicka, Witold Szabłowski, Marcin Kołodziejczyk, Anna Fostakowska, Wojciech Bojanowski, Paweł Piotr Reszka, Jacek Antczak, Artur Pałysa, Lidia Ostałowska, Tomasz Kwaśniewski, Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska, Paweł Smoleński, Jacek Hugo-Bader, Grzegorz Sroczyński, Wojciech Tochman, Mariusz Szczygieł.
Illustrations by Grupa Twożywo.