Yesterday, Andrzej Stasiuk, one of the most talented contemporary writers, received the Gwarancja Kultury 2012 award – an annual award presented by TVP Kultura for literature. The jury appreciated his latest collection of short stories, Grochów – a tale of fate and time, which is exactly measured out for everyone. For its extraordinary language, flexible and precise at the same time. For the literary attempt to remind us that death is also part of life. Congratulations!

The 9th of May will see the premiere of Agent, the latest novel by Manuela Gretkowska. The book deals with complicated relationships, love, lies and their consequences. The protagonist, sixty-yearold Szymon Golberg, leads a double life: not only does he have a loving and caring wife in Tel Aviv, but also a young lover and a son in Warsaw, where he often travels on business. He loves both women as well as deceives them. The situation comes to a head one day as his wife decides to pay him a visit in Poland. This time around Manuela Gretkowska is not provocative; she is more like Maria Nurowska – writes Leszek Bugajski in the latest issue of Newsweek.

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud are the authors of the film adaptation of the famous comic book, Persepolis. Tomorrow (Friday, the 13th of April) at 8 p.m., fans of the book will gather not in a library, but in the KIKA cinema in Podgórze to watch the film adaptation of Persepolis in the framework of Małopolskie Studio Komiksu (the Malopolska Comic Studio). Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-born French author of comic books, graphic novels, children's books, and director of animated movies, was the guest of the 2nd edition of the Conrad Festival.

Good news for fans of Etgar Keret’s prose: Suddenly a Knock on the Door, a new collection of short stories by this Israeli writer, one of the guests of the first edition of the Conrad Festival, will be released in a little over two months (in May) under the W.A.B. publishing company. A sensational writer, unlike any other. The voice of a new generation – recommends Salman Rushdie.

With 64,000 copies sold, Wisława Szymborska’s book of poetry, Radość pisania, has now stayed at the top of the Italian bestsellers list for four weeks – reports last Saturday’s issue of La Repubblica. Roberto Calasso, head of the prestigious Adelphi publishing house which publishes Szymborska’s work in Italy, comments: “this is the only case of its kind in the world”.