Jacek Dehnel

(b. 1980) is a popular and highly -respected Polish prose writer, poet, translator and painter. He is the author of many well -received novels, such as Doll (2006), Balzakiana (2008), Saturn (2011) and Mother Makryna (2014). He has won numerous awards: he received the prestigious Kościelski Foundation Award in 2005 for his debut poetry volume Parallel Lives. In 2007, he was awarded the Polityka Passport Award, and in 2009 the Silesian Laurel of Literature. He has been nominated twice for the Angelus Central European Literary Award, and five times for Poland’s most prestigious literary distinction – the Nike Award. In 2014, he was nominated for the Wisława Szymborska Poetry Award. He received the bronze Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture. He lives in Warsaw’s Powiśle district, which he often writes about. His husband is the translator and writer Piotr Tarczyński, with whom he co -writes a series of mystery novels under the pseudonym of Maryla Szymiczkowa.