The competition is organised by the Wis艂awa Szymborska Foundation, and the award itself is of an international nature. It is granted annually for a poetry volume published in Polish in the preceding year and, every two years, for a book translated from a foreign language. Candidates for the award may be nominated by publishing houses, cultural institutions, literary media outlets, members of the jury and other individuals. The laureates are selected by a panel of experts well acquainted with poetry and its world 鈥� poets, critics, translators and literary scholars. It is they who jointly decide which of the submitted books open up new perspectives, surprise with their language and stimulate the imagination 鈥� in much the same way as Wis艂awa Szymborska herself once did.
A member of the award jury, mgr Mark Tardi is a writer, translator and a lecturer whose research interests focus on contemporary literature, media and theatre. He was educated at Brown University, where he obtained an MFA, and in the 2008/2009 academic year he stayed in Poland as a Fulbright Programme fellow. His distinctions include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 2022 and a PEN/Heim grant in 2023. Mark Tardi is the author of three books and numerous publications. He is also engaged in translating Polish literature into English.
This year, the Wis艂awa Szymborska Award is scheduled to be presented at the turn of June and July during the Mi艂osz Festival in Krak贸w.