Mariusz Szczygieł


Mariusz Adam Szczygieł is a Polish journalist and writer. He is the winner of the 2009 European Book Prize for Gottland and the 2019 Nike Award, the most important prize in Polish literature.
WWW piotrus71.wixsite.com/mar...

Life and career

At 16, Szczygieł began writing for the weekly-paper Na przełaj. In spite of communist-era censorship, he published a shocking collection of reports titled The Shrift, which were about gay and lesbian youth in Poland.
Szczygieł graduated in journalism and political science from the University of Warsaw in 2000.
As a presenter of the popular TV cultural and current affairs programme Na każdy temat Szczygieł became the first person to utter the word "orgasm" on Polish television.
In 2002, he stopped working for TV Polsat and concentrated on writing for Gazeta Wyborcza. Presently, he is the senior deputy editor of the weekly supplement Duży Format and deputy editor of its reportage-section.
His works are cited in most anthologies of contemporary Polish journalism. Most notable are his studies of the Czechoslovak, and especially Czech, culture and life-style. His best-selling book Gottland, was described by Adam Michnik, as the first cubistic reportage of the world. Gottland received the European Book Prize, the Polish Booksellers Prize. and the Nike Audience Award.
In 2019 he won Nike Award, for his reportage Nie ma, which won both the Jury Prize and the Audience Poll.
His works have been translated into Czech, English, Estonian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

Personal life

Szczygieł is an outspoken atheist.
In his 2022 book Fakty muszą zatańczyć he came out as a gay man.

Criticism

Activist Jan Śpiewak criticized Szczygieł in 2025 during an episode of his podcast, as someone insensitive to the obstacles faced by younger generations in the property market, quoting Szczygieł's own words:
  • “Ten years after arriving in Warsaw in 1995, I was offered the opportunity to host a television program. I wasn't eager, I didn't feel the need. 'In a year, you’ll buy a two-room apartment,' said the producer, and I gave in. He was right, a miniature two-room apartment, a year later it was mine, and there was a cat in it. A home exists for me when there’s a cat in it."*
Szczygieł’s more recent statement on the matter was: *“And what do young people think today? Generation Z rides rented bikes, travels, and constantly changes career paths. Owning an apartment is not a lifestyle.”* — Mariusz Szczygieł Śpiewak pointed out that while Szczygieł views young people's inability to acquire their own homes as a lifestyle choice, preferring the sharing economy, Szczygieł fails to acknowledge that young people face job insecurity, high levels of generational inequality and property price rises that far outpace earnings. Śpiewak argued that Szczygieł's generation, who were able to purchase properties relatively cheaply, fails to understand the challenges faced by today's youth. Śpiewak, urged him to “look around once in a while,” citing his attitude as typical of the older neoliberal generation.

Awards and honours

Works

  • Niedziela, która zdarzyła się w środę, Warsaw 1996;
  • Na każdy temat – talk show do czytania, with Witold Orzechowski,, Warsaw 1997;
  • Gottland, Berlin 2008;
  • 20 lat nowej Polski w reportażach według Mariusza Szczygła, Wołowiec 2009;
  • Kaprysik. Damskie historie, Warszawa 2010;
  • Zrób sobie raj, Wołowiec 2010;
  • Láska nebeská, Warsaw 2012;
  • Projekt: prawda, Warsaw 2016;
  • Nie ma, Warsaw 2018
  • Osobisty przewodnik po Pradze, Warsaw 2020.
  • Fakty muszą zatańczyć, Warsaw 2022.
In anthologies
  • Kraj Raj, Warsaw 1993;
  • Wysokie Obcasy. Twarze, Warsaw 2003;
  • Ouvertyr till livet, Stockholm 2003;
  • La vie est un reportage. Anthologie du reportage litteraire polonais, Montricher 2005;
  • Von Minsk nach Manhattan. Polnische reportagen, Vienna 2006.