BIO

A prose writer and journalist writing in Polish, and occasionally also in Silesian.

He has published in the following magazines: Życie, Opcje, Fronda, 44/Czterdzieści i Cztery, Nowa Gazeta Śląska, Arcana, Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita, and Czas Fantastyki as an independent journalist. He was the editor of the literary section of the bimonthly magazine Christianitas. He was a columnist for Polityka and Wysokie Obcasy Extra.

His short story Rondo won the Nautilus Award for the best short story of 2006. In 2011, he received the Józef Mackiewicz Award for his novel Wieczny Grunwald (Eternal Grunwald). He received the award for his novel Morfina (Morphine), which was a finalist for the 2013 Nike Literary Award and was nominated for the 2013 Gdynia Literary Award and the 2015 Prix du Livre Européen / European Book Prize. In 2014, his next book, Drach, was published, which was a finalist for the 2015 Nike Literary Award and won the 2016 Brücke Berlin German literary award. In 2015, he won the Kościelski Foundation Award. In April 2017, he received the main prize in the “O!Lśnienia 2016” poll in the “Literature” category, organized by Onet.pl. In 2023, Twardoch’s publisher, Wydawnictwo Literackie, announced that sales of Szczepan Twardoch’s books had exceeded one million copies.

Twardoch’s works have inspired the following plays: Król (The King, premiered in 2018, directed by Monika Strzępka), Drach (The Dragon, 2018, Robert Talarczyk), Pokora (Humility, 2021, Robert Talarczyk) and Byk (The Bull, 2022, Robert Talarczyk and Szczepan Twardoch).

He graduated in sociology from the Interdepartmental Individual Studies in the Humanities at the University of Silesia in Katowice.