29 Facts About Olga Tokarczuk

Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual.

Olga Tokarczuk is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland; in 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature as the first Polish female prose writer for "a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life".

Olga Tokarczuk's works include Primeval and Other Times, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, and The Books of Jacob.

Olga Tokarczuk is noted for the mythical tone of her writing.

Olga Tokarczuk faced some backlash from nationalist groups in her homeland after the publication of The Books of Jacob, which is set in 18th-century Poland, because the novel celebrates the country's cultural diversity.

Olga Tokarczuk's works have been translated into almost 40 languages, making her one of the most translated contemporary Polish writers.

Olga Tokarczuk was born in Sulechow near Zielona Gora, in western Poland.

Olga Tokarczuk's parents were resettled from former Polish eastern regions after the Second World War; one of her grandmothers was of Ukrainian origin.

Olga Tokarczuk's father was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party.

Olga Tokarczuk went on to study clinical psychology at the University of Warsaw in 1980, and during her studies she volunteered in an asylum for adolescents with behavioural problems.

Olga Tokarczuk's works were awarded at Walbrzych Literary Paths.

Olga Tokarczuk considers herself a disciple of Carl Jung and cites his psychology as an inspiration for her literary work.

In 1998, together with her first husband, Olga Tokarczuk founded the Ruta publishing house, which operated until 2004.

In 2009, Olga Tokarczuk received a literary scholarship from the Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and during her stay at the NIAS campus in Wassenaar, she wrote her novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, which was published the same year.

Olga Tokarczuk introduces the characters of scientists, the psychiatrist-patient relationship, and despite elements of spiritualism, occultism as well as gnosticism, she represents psychological realism and cognitive scepticism.

Olga Tokarczuk's next book Szafa was a collection of three novella-type stories.

Olga Tokarczuk's goal is to make those images, fragments of narrative and motif, merge together only on entering the reader's consciousness.

Olga Tokarczuk published a volume with three modern Christmas tales, together with her fellow writers Jerzy Pilch and Andrzej Stasiuk.

Olga Tokarczuk decides to investigate the murders of members of the local hunting club, and initially explains these deaths as having been caused by wild animals taking revenge on hunters.

Since its foundation in 2015, Olga Tokarczuk has become co-host of the annual Literary Heights Festival, which has included events in her village.

In November 2019, Olga Tokarczuk has established a foundation with a planned wide range of activities related to literature to create progressive intellectual and artistic centre.

Olga Tokarczuk has been criticized by some nationalist groups in Poland as unpatriotic, anti-Christian and a promoter of eco-terrorism.

Olga Tokarczuk has denied the allegations, has described herself as a "true patriot" and said that groups criticizing her are xenophobic and damage Poland's international reputation.

In 2015, after the publication of The Books of Jacob, Olga Tokarczuk was criticized by the Nowa Ruda Patriots association, who demanded that the town's council revoke the writer's honorary citizenship of Nowa Ruda because, as the association claimed, she had tarnished the good name of the Polish nation.

Olga Tokarczuk asserted that she is the true patriot, not the people and groups who criticize her, and whose alleged xenophobic and racist attitudes and actions are harmful to Poland and its image abroad.

Olga Tokarczuk is the laureate of numerous literary awards both in and outside Poland.

Olga Tokarczuk's works have become the subject of several dozen academic papers and theses.

Olga Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019 for "a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life" and delivered the Nobel Lecture, The Tender Narrator, on 7 December of that year.

Olga Tokarczuk was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer in November 2021.