Olga Tokarczuk* has received the Nobel Prize for Literature! This message electrified all enthusiasts of her writing. We would like to remind you that the writer was also associated with our university - in the academic year 2007/2008 she conducted creative writing classes at the UO. She was invited to cooperate with the university by the then rector, Prof. Stanisław Sławomir Nicieja, and the classes were organised by the Institute of Polish Philology.
Prof. Nicieja said then: - For a very long time, over two years, I tried to gain Ms. Tokarczuk's consent to work with us. And finally she agreed to it. It is very important for the university, because it will not only allow our students to learn from the best, but also to have contact with an outstanding artist, an uncommon personality - he emphasized. - We are very keen to attract outstanding people to the university, and Ms. Tokarczuk is undoubtedly such a person.
In the interview published in Gazeta Wyborcza in 2008, she talked about her work at the University and the role of a teacher:
- It seems to me that there is a superior and general rule here: it is always good for the teacher to have a strong personality. Strong in the Greek sense. The teacher should be the one who teaches with their own approach to life, with their personality, uncommonness. However, they should not remain only craftsmen teachers. For students, the contact with someone who writes and who is strong in writing will be valuable. I have ten books in my body of work, so the very talk about how I worked on them can be interesting and even valuable for those who will want to write for themselves one day.
*Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2018 by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on 10th October 2019. In 2018, Tokarczuk and her translator Jennifer Croft received
the Man Booker International Prize for the novel ‘Flights’. Her book "Drive
Your Plough over the Bones of the Dead", translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones,
was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019, and the National Book for Translated
Literature. Also, Agnieszka Holland, a famous Polish director, made the film
Spoor, based on that novel, which won many awards. Earlier, Tokarczuk
published, among others, 'The Books of Jacob', for which she received
the Nike Literary Award, as well as 'Primeval and Other Times', ‘House
of Day, House of Night’, and a collection of essays 'Moment of the
Bear'.
