The winner in the first category of the Pomeranian Literary Award 'Wiatr od morza' was dr Monika Milewska from the Faculty of History UG. The title of the Literary Book of the Year was awarded to her monograph entitled. 'Blind Kitchen. Food and Ideology in the People's Republic of Poland', published by the State Publishing Institute.

At the award gala held on Friday October 21 at the St John's Centre in Gdańsk, the winners of the Pomeranian Literary Award were announced by Mieczysław Struk, Marshall of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. In the first category, the award, for the book entitled. 'Blind Kitchen. Food and ideology in the People's Republic of Poland', was awarded to dr Monika Milewska - PhD in history, essayist, poet, fairy-tale writer, author of radio plays and theatre plays, who works at the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Gdańsk.

- 'This award is particularly valuable to me, because it proves that serious scientific books, accompanied by a huge bibliography and a difficult to count number of detailed footnotes, can at the same time be attractive in literary terms and reach a wide range of readers,' - says dr Monika Milewska. - 'This is great joy for a researcher.'

During the gala, the author of the book 'Blind Kitchen. Food and Ideology in the People's Republic of Poland' said: - 'I recently heard about my book that it belongs to the trend of books that tell about the People's Republic of Poland without sweetening, without sugar-coating, that it is our moral duty, people who lived under that system, to precisely not sweeten it, not to talk about it with nostalgia. Yes, it was our childhood, it was our youth, but we must bear Herbertian witness to the fact that it was a bad and often, just plain lousy time.'

'Blind Kitchen. Food and Ideology in the People's Republic of Poland' is not only a historical monograph, but also an engaging essay that takes the reader into the world of twentieth-century flavours. An attempt to answer the question of how people ate in the People's Republic of Poland becomes a sensual and erudite journey, during which we learn not only many historical facts introducing us to the reality of the second half of the 20th century, but also dozens of tasty anecdotes.

Dr Monika Milewska made her debut at the age of 13, and her first poem appeared in print in France in the magazine 'Europoésie' in 1992. She has won numerous awards, including the Grand Prix of the Two Theatres Festival in Sopot for the text of her radio play 'Journey to the Moon'. She has published four volumes of poetry. Her 2002 essayist book 'Vinegar and Tears. The Terror of the Great French Revolution as a Traumatic Experience' earned her a 'Polityka' scholarship and a nomination for the Nike Award. Her debut novel, Kite of Concrete, was published in 2018, which won the Pomeranian Literary Award in the Literary Book of the Year category and received a theatrical, television and radio adaptation.

Awards in other categories

The winners in the Pomeranian Book of the Year category were Janusz Dargacz, Katarzyna Kurkowska and Leszek Molendowski, editors of the book 'History of Gdańsk districts. Volume III: Nowy Port', published by the Gdańsk Museum Publishing House. They also received the Audience Award in this edition.

The Pomeranian Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature went this year to Anna Czekanowicz, poet, novelist, screenwriter and editor, and the Kashubian Literary Award went to historian, theologian and poet Father Jan Walkusz.

Nominations for the Pomeranian Literary Award 2022

Among the nominees were:

Literary Book of the Year:

• Córka/Daughter, Zbigniew Joachimiak, Light of Literature Foundation 2021
• Fears Untamed - Bożena Ptak, SPP 2021
• Laying down one's life for Poland. Altruistic suicide in 19th century Polish culture - Stefan Chwin, Title 2021
• Blind Kitchen. Food and ideology in the People's Republic of Poland, Monika Milewska, PIW 2021 
• Light in the bay. Gdańsk poems - Krystyna Lars, Title 2021

Pomeranian Book of the Year:

• History of Gdańsk districts. Volume III: Nowy Port - Janusz Dargacz, Katarzyna Kurkowska and Leszek Molendowski, Museum of Gdańsk 2021
• Moja Wróblewskiego - Joanna Breza, Voivodeship and City Public Library in Gdańsk 2021
• Colours of Gdańsk: Colour compositions of facades from the 16th to the end of the 18th century - Anna Kriegseisen, Gdańsk Museum Publishing House 2021
• Violence and honour in the social life of villages in the Vistula Spit in the 16th-17th centuries - Jaśmina Korczak-Siedlecka, Nicolaus Copernicus University Scientific Publishing 2021
• Sclavus - Tymon Tymański, Proste Parts 2021