The Nike Literary Award is a literary prize awarded each year for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish and published the previous year. It is widely considered the most important award for Polish literature. Established in 1997 and funded by Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's second largest daily paper, and the consulting company NICOM, it is conferred annually in October. It is open for nominees from all literary genres, including non-fiction essays and autobiographies.
2005 Nike Award ceremony with former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Image: 2018.07.10. Zyta Rudzka
Image: Jerzy Jarniewicz(1)
Image: Zbigniew Rokita 7535
Czesław Miłosz was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. He primarily wrote his poetry in Polish. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy called Miłosz a writer who "voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts".
Miłosz in 1999
Czesław Miłosz, third row from top and fourth from left, with fellow students, Stefan Batory University, Wilno, 1930
Czesław Miłosz (right) with brother Andrzej Miłosz at PEN Club World Congress, Warsaw, May 1999
German troops setting fire to Warsaw buildings, 1944