The book A Fairytale City by Paulina Siegień, which tells the story of Kaliningrad - a city not far from our border, built on the ruins of Königsberg, was appreciated by the jury of the Conrad Prize competition as well as the audience and announced the best prose debut of the past year. The award ceremony took place during a gala on the last day of the Conrad Festival held in Kraków.
The organisers of the Conrad Festival are the City of Kraków, KBF: the operator of the Kraków City of Literature UNESCO programme, and the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation. The literary award for the debut was presented for the eighth time this year.
Among the nominees, apart from a PhD student from the University of Gdańsk, were: Monika Drzazgowska for 'Szalej' (Wydawnictwo Literackie), Krzysztof Pietrala for 'Story Jones' (Meth), Bartosz Sadulski for 'Rzeszot' (Książkowe Klimaty), Jaga Słowińska for 'Czarnolas' (Korporacja Ha!art).
Paulina Siegień's book was published by Wydawnictwo Czarne in the non-fiction and reportage series: 'This is a thoroughly European city. And yet, the transformation of the former capital of East Prussia first into Soviet and then Russian Kaliningrad evokes a strange unease, a feeling of incongruity palpable in the city itself - both for the inhabitants and the authorities, those local and those in the Kremlin. At first glance, it is an ordinary Russian province, perhaps more complacent, comparing itself more readily to its pre-war power and European neighbours than to Moscow or St. Petersburg. But at the same time, beneath the surface, there is another city, neither a spectre nor a chimaera.' - can be read on the publisher's website.
Paulina Siegień received the statuette during the gala held at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre. The author received a financial award, and her book will be promoted in Tygodnik Powszechny.
The Conrad Festival was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the Promotion of Readership programme.
We would like to congratulate the author on her success!
