Olga Tokarczuk

Born on January 29, 1962 in Sulechów in a family of teachers; daughter of Wanda Slabowska and Józef Tokarczuk. She spent her childhood in the village of Klenica near Zielona Góra, where her parents taught at the People's University. Then she moved with her family to Kietrz (Opolskie Land); here she attended the High School C. K. Norwid. In 1979 she debuted with two short story in prose "Christmas Killing a Fish" and "My Friends", published in the youth magazine "Na Przelaj" (No. 39; under the nickname Natasza Borodin). After passing her final exams, she studied psychology (clinical specialization) at the University of Warsaw. During this period she worked as a volunteer in a psychiatric hospital. In 1985 she obtained a master's degree, after which in 1986-89 she was employed at the Mental Health Clinic in Walbrzych. Then until 1996 she worked as a psychotherapist at the Methodological Center in Walbrzych, where she trained teachers according to her own program. During this period, she sporadically published poems in the press, published a volume of poems, and also began to develop prose works, fragments of which she published in various magazines, also printed reviews (in the supplement "Zycie Warszawy", "Ex Libris" in 1994-95, "New Books" in 1999 and "Literature on the World" in 2000). Her works were awarded at Walbrzych Literary Paths (1988, 1990). In the early 1990s, she spent some time in England learning the language and working. In 1994 she moved to the village of Krajanów. In the same year she became a member of the Polish Writers' Association. She was on literary scholarships in the United States (1996) and Berlin (2001/02). In 1997 she received the prize of the Koscielski Foundation in Geneva and Passport of "Polityka". In 1998, together with her husband, Roman Fingas, she founded the publishing house "Ruta", which operated until 2004; a bookstore with this name was also established in Walbrzych. From 1999 she belonged to the Polish PEN Club. In 2000 she made her debut as a playwright with the story "Treasure". She was the originator of the International Short Story Festival organized since 2004 in Wroclaw (and since 2005 also in Jelenia Góra). She conducted prose workshops at the Literary and Artistic School of the Jagiellonian University, and since 2008 periodically classes in creative writing at the University of Opole. She joined the editorial team of the quarterly "Krytyka Polityczna". She started cooperation with the Green Party. She traveled around the world, including to England, United States, China, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Syria and Egypt. From February to July 2009 she was on a scholarship from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Science in Wassenaar, where she wrote the novel "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead". In 2015, together with Karol Maliszewski, she hosted the Mountain of Literature Festival organized in Nowa Ruda and the surrounding area by the "Góra Babel" Cultural Association and the Nowa Ruda Commune.

He has a son, Zbyszek (born in 1986). She lived in Walbrzych, Nowa Ruda, has a house in Krajanów near Nowa Ruda, and currently lives in Wroclaw.