photo: Mariusz Kubik, Wikipedia.
Urszula Kozioł became a laureate of the NIKE Literary Award, Michał Witkowski with the NIKE Readers’ Award
The winner of Poland’s most important literary award is not only a graduate, but also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Wrocław. The award-winning novelist also graduated with a degree in Polish studies from the building at pl. Nankiera. She was also a doctoral student in Polish studies.
Urszula Kozioł, a 93-year-old poet, was honoured with the Nike Literary Award for her poetic volume ‘Raptularz’. She was previously nominated for this prestigious award as recently as 2006 for ‘Supliki’, 2008 for ‘Przelotem’, 2015 for ‘Klangor’, and in 2017 for ‘Ucieczki’. A few days ago, Urszula Kozioł also received the ‘Odra’ Award in Wrocław. The poet has received dozens of distinctions – including the Silesius Poetry Award in Wrocław, the Kościelski Award, the Stanisław Piętak Award and the Orpheus Award. She was the first woman to be awarded the Honorary Citizenship of Wrocław – in 2009. She was also the first poet to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Wrocław.
University fate of Urszula Kozioł
The Nike Award was presented on Sunday at the University Library in Warsaw. And 22 years ago, in 2002, in the Aula Leopoldina – while receiving her honorary doctorate from the University of Wrocław – the laureate recalled her first Wrocław and student years. In her speech after receiving the most important academic award, she spoke of her university colleagues and wonderful lecturers:
‘A wreath for a poet. I am truly and deeply touched by the honour bestowed upon me and by this whole unusual situation – for it is not every day that universities wish to crown poets with such an honour, let alone poets. (…) I think that what brings me here is the word. Yes. It is the word that has led me through the decades to this place where I now stand on this very beautiful occasion, in this very beautiful hall. I saw this room for the first time in 1950, when, after passing my matriculation exams at a humanities secondary school in Zamość, I accidentally ended up studying Polish studies not in Warsaw, as I had planned, but right here in Wrocław. Perhaps this was the reason why I was able to avoid, to some extent, the glaring schematism and militant socialist realism typical of the first period of my studies, which coincided with the bad years of 1950-1953, In Wrocław, on the other hand, I had the opportunity (apart from a few enthusiasts of the prevailing system) to find myself under the tutelage of such eminent guides to the knowledge of the secrets of the creation and reception of a literary work as professor Tadeusz Mikulski and professor Bogdan Zakrzewski, who followed him. I therefore keep them in grateful memory.
I can still hear the inspired words of dr Stanislaw Furmaniak or professor Władysław Floryan, who could also surprise a student during an exam with a trick question: what colour was the hair of the Baroness de Nucingen in Father Goriot?
Nor will I forget the profound impression made on me by the poems of Akhmatova, whom I had previously known, often quoted in class – as if in spite of the schema that was rampant everywhere – by professor Trzinadlowski, who seemed to wink at us, saying that this was the way he fulfilled the requirement to be obedient to his “big brother”, referring to the models of literature in its highest manifestations, which, as it later turned out, were very much frowned upon by official Soviet propaganda. Well, and professor Bak? During the session, wouldn’t you be standing at the door of his office, left with a bang by another unfortunate who had failed an exam, in order to ask him: what did you fail at? And then, immediately afterwards, with a whole list of such tricky ‘hooks’, snares laid by the professor, didn’t you run to – the much-missed – Bogdan Sicinski, later a lecturer at the local University and the dean, and at that time my colleague, who headed our team of several people, asking: Bodziu, what is ‘itacyzm’? The amin-amin was patiently explained by Siciński, who was very proficient in this field, and so the whole thing went smoothly, because when it came to professor Bąk’s other “hobby”, these dialects, I had a good ear for them, having come from the area between the San and Tanew rivers, where Polish and Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, and even the languages of the German colonists who settled there in large numbers, and earlier than them – Armenian and Turkish, and yet there was also the speech of wandering Gypsies.’
Michał Witkowski also from our University
The writer, who recently returned to his native Wrocław, was awarded the Readers’ Nike for his book ’Wiara. Autobiography’. This time, it is a non-fiction book, i.e. a story about his childhood and youth full of anecdotal Wrocław themes.
And Michał Witkowski, is a native of Wrocław (born in 1975), his father, Stanisław Witkowski, was a professor of psychology, deputy director of the Institute of Psychology at Wrocław University, and his mother also taught psychology. The author of ‘Lubiewa’ , an award-winning writer (including five nominations for the Nike Award), is a colourful character associated not only with the writing community but also with pop culture. He studied Polish studies in Wrocław, graduating in 1999. He was also a doctoral student of professor Stanisław Bereś – but ultimately decided to pursue a career in writing.
