ELPs Definition and Scope of the Paper

2Literary prizes can also be identified as a part of such a cultural legitimation process that accompanies legal and political initiatives. In this paper, we focus on what we call Europe-related literary prizes (ELPs), that is, prizes which are referring in their official documents to European culture, history, and values and are sponsored either by European Union institutions, EU’s member states and their organizations, or cultural institutions, foundations, associations, companies, publishers or private individuals. ELPs are awarded preferably to the authors from the whole of Europe, alternatively to a subset of European nationalities. Finally, ELPs are to be defined here by the fact that they are awarded (even if not exclusively) to writers. To sum up, ELPs have four dimensions: 1) topical: they are awarding a relation between literary creation and European culture, values, and so on; 2) disciplinary: they are awarding literary creation, including writers; 3) geocultural: they are recognizing European writers; 4) organizational: they are funded and organized by European institutions.

Research Review and Research Question

4In this paper, we will examine the ELPs landscape in Poland. This topic has hardly been discussed so far, which does not seem surprising, since this specific type of prize is still relatively young on the Polish literary prize scene. Since Polish ELPs respond to two different cultural environments – Polish and European – at the same time with their specific orientation, the connection to two different fields of research is correspondingly necessary for this study.

5On the one hand, newly founded literary prizes with a European program have an impact on the European cultural landscape and literary prize scene. Since the European Union as well as the member states and their cultural institutions use literary prizes to promote their own visions of Europe, their valorization practices are often in competition with each other. Depending on the image of Europe that these prizes convey aesthetically and politically through their practices of consecration, they also intervene in the long term in institutional processes about what a future Europe should look like.

8ELPs on the other hand have an impact on the (in many cases) tradition-rich national literary prize scene by strengthening new (mostly Europhile) values and value patterns. Put simply, they add a transnational component to the national literary scene and thus sometimes provoke contentious controversies over political identity in the context of one’s own national or cultural self-image. For example, they trigger discussion on the extent to which international actors both economically and symbolically should also be favored by the national funding system.

12Based on previous research on the topic, the study attempts to provide answers to the following questions: how has the Polish literary prize scene changed since Poland joined the EU? How many prizes, which are in the wider European context (including so-called “Euregios,” i.e. bilateral literary prizes), have been launched since 2004? What values and value patterns in the context of European integration are these prizes trying to popularize? What kind of Europe do these prizes represent and which self-image of Poland (its function and role within the EU) can be deduced from the political and aesthetic orientation of the prizes (looking at statutes and programs of the prizes, laudations, and acceptance speeches as well as the lineup of the laureates)?

List of Polish Europe-Related Literary Prizes

13Based on our understanding of what constitutes ELPs, we identify thirteen such prizes in Poland. In the following table we present them through four dimensions:

1. topical – this indicates how important is the reference to European culture in relation to the ELP’s overall message,

2. disciplinary – this indicates whether a prize is strictly literary or has a broader range,

3. geocultural – this indicates the geographic and cultural scope of the prize, especially whether it is open for participation for all European nationalities or is somehow limited (e.g. can only be obtained by writers representing a European region),

4. organizational – this defines the organizational entity behind a prize.

Table 1. List of Polish ELPs.

#	Prize name	Topical dimension (importance of reference to Europe)	Disciplinary dimension	Geocultural scope (awardees criteria)	Organizational dimension
1	European Poet of Freedom	primary reference (awarding creation which embodies a new vision to European community)	literary (poetry)	whole Europe	public (city; Gdansk)
2	Central European Literary Award Angelus [Angelus]	primary reference (awarding literary creation which reflects on Central Europe)	literary (prose)	23 countries from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe	public (city; Wroclaw)
3	Krakow City Council Award Stanisław Vincenz (previously: New Culture of New Europe) [Vincenz award]	strong reference (awarding contributions which reflect on Central-Eastern Europe	political (awarding among others personalities of political and cultural life)	Central and Eastern Europe	public (city; Krakow)
4	International Bridge Award (der Internationale Brückepreis) / Nagroda Mostu Europa-Miasta [Bridge award]	strong reference: recognizes contributions that reflect on Europe as a place of intercultural dialogue, cultural exchange	political (awarding among others personalities of political and cultural life)	international (so far, the majority of winners have been European)	association (Society for the Award of the International Bridge Prize of Europe Cities Zgorzelec/Görlitz)
5	Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Award [Giedroyc award]	weak reference: awards Belarusian writers whose work contributes towards neighborly relations amongst Central-European nations	literary (any work)	Belarusians	public (state: Embassy of Poland in Belarus; Polish Institute in Minsk) and associations (Belarusian PEN Centre, and the Union of Belarusian Writers)
6	Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Award [Conrad-Korzeniowski award]	weak reference: awards Ukrainian writers whose work resembles Conrad’s work (Conrad-Korzeniowski as a “paneuropean” symbol)	literary (prose)	Ukrainians	public (state: Polish Institute in Kiev)
7	Identitas Award	strong reference: awards creation which contributes to understanding of community embedded in Western, European values	award for contributions to culture: literary (any work), scientific, and popular publications (i. a. historical monographs and works in the field of humanities)	Poles	association (Identitas Foundation)
8	Man of Borderland (title, program, no award)	weak reference: awards contributions that reflect on Europe as a source of values; award for creators of culture from Central Europe, which popularize an idea and ethos of borderland	political (awarding among others personalities of political and cultural life)	Europe (with clear focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic States)	association (Center Borderland - of arts, cultures, nations)
9	Rzeczpospolita Award	strong reference: awarded to authors who see themselves ideologically in the tradition of Jerzy Giedroyc. One of the author’s concerns was “strengthening Poland’s position in Europe and maintaining good relations with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.” (PP/RA)	political (awarding among others personalities of political and cultural life)	international (so far, the majority of winners have been Poles)	newspaper (Rzeczpospolita)
10	Leopold Staff Literary Award [Staff award]	weak reference to European cultural memory; the award recognizes the engagement with Italian art	award for contributions to culture: entire spectrum of literary production and practices (translators, publishers, literary critics; rarely: literature), scientific and popular publications (i. a. historical monographs and works in the field of humanities)	Poles	newspaper (Lente magazine) and private/company (Antich’ Caffè)
11	Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award [Herbert Award]	weak reference: awards contributions that reflect on Europe as a source of values (values such as freedom are explicitly described here as universal)	literary (poetry)	international (so far, the majority of winners have been European)	association (Herbert Foundation)
12	Trakl competition	weak reference: The prize awards literary works that relate to the atmosphere of the Georg Trakl’s poetry, an Austrian author whose literary works are strongly influenced by the First World War	literary (poetry); since 2015 a competition for amateurs	Poles	public (state: Consulate General of the Republic of Austria in Krakow) and association (Foundation for the Promotion of Culture “Urwany Film”)
13	New Europe Ambassador	primary reference: awards “books that boldly and uncompromisingly destroy existing stereotypes and clichés that define Europe and its inhabitants and seek answers to what Europe is today.” (PP/NEA)	award for contributions to culture: entire spectrum of literary production and practices (translators, publishers, literary critics), scientific and popular publications (i.a. historical monographs and works in the field of humanities), literary (multiple genres, i.a. comics)	international (so far, the majority of winners have been European; clear focus on Central and Eastern Europe)	association (European Solidarity Center in Gdansk, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wroclaw)

Topical Dimension of ELPs

14A look at the prizes’ documentation (their agendas and respective epi- and peritexts such as jury decisions, lists of prizewinners, laudations, acceptance speeches) makes it clear that the prizes differ not only in terms of the values they seek to convey, but also in how strongly the respective reference to Europe is expressed. The fact that Europe is the central point of reference is clearly evident in all those ELPs that leave no doubt from the title alone that they pursue a political program, such as the European Poet of Freedom, the Central European Literary Award Angelus or the Ambassador of New Europe (we call this a “primary reference” to Europe). A strong reference, on the other hand, can be established for those prizes that inform in their statues that the prize is located in the context of the discussion about Europe, European values, the European literary canon, and the cultural heritage of Europe (Vincenz Award, Bridge Award, Identitas Award, Rzeczpospolita Award). On the other hand, the reference is described as weak if Europe is mentioned neither in the title nor in the epi- and peritexts of the prize, but the self-description reveals references to a transnational (sometimes European) debate about values, identity, politics, and aesthetics (Trakl Competition, Man of Borderland, Herbert Award, Giedroyc Award and Conrad-Korzeniowski Award).

1. • 26 The abbreviations of the names of the awards given in parentheses refer to the official websites of (...)
   • 27 Ibid.

   The only award that can be assigned to this category (in the strictest sense) is the European Poet of Freedom. The prize donors remain very vague in their definition of Europe, but at the same time, make it clear that they see the cultural-political function of the prize in European community building, cultural-political integration, and European identity building, as can be seen from the prize’s self-description published online: “the adjective [European – author’s note] obviously refers to geography, which, however, can prove to be complex, especially in the present day. Europe, to which the Poet of Freedom refers, is not just a territory [sic]; it is a project of community. The community, particularly in the context of modern-day Europe, cannot be discussed in isolation from politics, although not the politics understood as local tentative interests of one group or another. The politics of the ‘European Poet of Freedom’ is aimed at creating and shaping new ways of coexistence for millions of people”26 (PP/EPF). By pointing out that authors are honored for their courage to “oppose existing forms in language and politics,”27 the prize committee makes it clear, on the one hand, that the community – according to its conception – should not only be preserved, but actively shaped with the means of art. Interestingly, this perspective makes it necessary for the prize to bring into play not only ideological but also aesthetic criteria of valorization.

2. Regardless of whether the reference to Europe is primary, strong or weak, the awards often paint a picture of Europe as the source and preserver of core values (such as peace, human rights, democracy, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for other cultures and religions, respect for nature and the environment). The evaluation criteria for the Herbert Award are also undoubtedly ideological in nature, when the prize committee highlights the namesake (Polish poet, essayist, and moralist Zbigniew Herbert) above all as a mediator of moral values such as “tolerance.” With emphatic undertones and an unmistakably time- and culture-critical perspective on today’s world – “seemingly sinking ever deeper into a marasmic state of ethical and metaphysical chaos” – the founders of the Herbert Award invoke literature as a place of healing that facilitates the “exchange of ideas, values, and contemporary experiences.” Literature – understood here in its broadest sense as "artistic creation" – is seen as a “tool of compassion” that should open readers’ eyes to “other people, other languages, other sufferings…” (PP/HA).

3. • 28 On the award website it says: “the awarding of such a title does not constitute a reward in any mat (...)
   • 29 With regard to the Conrad-Korzeniowski Prize, it is also interesting to see how prizes try to gener (...)
   • 30 Anna Schoon subsumes under “Europeanization” (Schoon, “Europäische Integration,” 350).

   One of the central values which the prizes’ agendas refer to or imply is Europe as a place of intercultural dialogue, cultural exchange, and intellectual networking (such as the Angelus, the Vincenz Prize, and the Conrad-Korzeniowski Award). Angelus, according to the statutes, “is directly connected with the centuries-long tradition of Breslau as a city of encounter and dialogue. Because of its history and location, Wroclaw has always been a place where different nations, cultures, and intellectual currents have intersected.” The award, therefore, honors authors “whose works address current issues, provoke thought, and expand knowledge about other cultures” (PP/A).
   As is evident in some cases, the ideological orientation is also realized in concrete initiatives. In the case of the Identitas Award, winning the prize is also linked to participation in a workshop on the Arctic island of Uloya. The Man of Borderland provides the winner with the prospect of popularizing his or her work and thus also contributes to the transcultural transmission of literature and values.28 Consequently, intercultural dialogue is in many cases not only a value to be defended, but it is linked to concrete cultural-political and literary initiatives and measures, as shown, for example, by the Giedroyc Award and the Conrad-Korzeniowski Award,29 which contribute to the popularization of Belarusian and Ukrainian literature. In the longer term, these initiatives contribute to a dynamisation of the development of a more integrated European literary field – they can also be understood as part of that process which Anna Schoon subsumes under “Europeanization.”30

4. Some awards conceptualize Europe as a high culture of artistic creation (Staff, Trakl) and as a place of rich cultural heritage to be preserved and productively expanded with new, innovative literature and art. One example is the Staff Award, which is given under the patronage of Leopold Staff, a Polish poet and translator whose work is strongly influenced by Mediterranean culture, for “outstanding academic, translational and popularizing achievements related to Italian culture.” Especially the prizes that bear a namesake in the title can be assigned to this category (see PP/SA), such as the Trakl Competition, which refers by name to the Austrian expressionist Georg Trakl, whose work is permeated by the topoi of death and decay, destruction and the experience of the First World War.

Disciplinary Dimension of ELPs

1. • 31 Christoph Jürgensen, “Würdige Popularität? Überlegungen zur Konsekrationsinstanz ‘Literaturpreis’ i (...)
   • 32 Poetry in Poland is marginal in the sense that after 1989 it became a more niche, low-circulation p (...)
   • 33 “At the very foundation of the European Poet of Freedom Literary Award lies the idea of connecting (...)

   One of ELPs’ core characteristics is their 1) disciplinary focus on awarding literature, which means in the most common sense the author’s lifetime achievements (such as the Herbert Award) or one specific work (such as Angelus or European Poet of Freedom, etc.). Polish ELPs are awarded for literary works of a certain genre (Angelus awards prizes for prose), and in some cases the prize program even goes hand in hand with a re-evaluation of certain literary forms and subgenres that were previously considered only marginally literary. For example, the winners of the New Europe Ambassador include comic book authors. It seems significant, however, that the prizes with the widest reach – the “Poet of Freedom” and the Herbert Prize (see geocultural dimension) – both focus on the genre of poetry. This is interesting in that literary prizes that overtly bring extra-literary value criteria into play (see topical dimension) often award prose and generally tend to qualify literature according to social relevance and socio-critical seriousness, thus narrowing it to a “leading medium of the discourse on social values.”31 The two prizes illustrate that this rule cannot be claimed for the Polish ELP scene. Topical and disciplinary dimensions are closely linked here, when the Poet of Freedom connects the marginalized role of poetry32 – at least between the lines – with the call for more diversity.33

2. • 34 Significant in this context is that translators have lately been awarded with literary prizes, whic (...)
   • 35 Launched in 2011, the Ambassador of New Europe awards a publisher and author (mostly in the field o (...)

   Awards for contributions to culture: even a quick glance at the Polish ELPs shows that the umbrella term “literature” refers to the entire spectrum of literary production and practices, as prizes are also awarded to other key players in the literary world, as can be seen from the Staff Award, which also honors publishers (such as Tatarak Publishing House in 2022), scientists and scientific organizations (ItaliAMO in 2021), and literary institutions (Dramatic Theater of the Capital City of Warsaw in 2020).34
   In the context of this article prizes which are awarded not (only) to authors, but for achievements in the field of literature, are referred to as “awards for contributions to culture.” This category shall also include (for the sake of simplicity) those prizes that honor artists and scholars in the fields of visual and performing arts, music, architecture, design, film, and photography, as well as authors of historical monographs and works in the field of the humanities. Of the thirteen prizes examined, three (the aforementioned Staff Award, Identitas and the New Europe Ambassador35) fall into this category, which (to reiterate) is distinguished by the fact that it not only honors literary works, but also rewards artistic and cultural achievements and contributions that go beyond them.

3. • 36 Alexandra Pontzen, Dennis Borghardt and Sarah Maaß, “Zu viel des Guten? Ein neuer Forschungsansatz (...)
   • 37 On the question of the contemporary significance of the author as a political-public persona, see Ś (...)

   Even more fundamental for the area of Polish ELPs seems to be the mechanism, characteristic of valorization processes, whereby literary or aesthetic and extra-literary (e.g. moral) value regimes mix with each other, e.g. literary works are evaluated according to criteria that have extra-literary – that is, social or socio-cultural – significance and “place literature in the context of cultural values and goals.”36 These valorization practices are reflected precisely in the prizes awarded to public figures (Politicians and political activists, diplomats, journalists, etc.) for their political and social achievements like the Bridge Award, whose winners include, for example, the Luxembourgian EU politician Jean-Claude Juncker (2014) or the Ukrainian professional boxer and politician Vitali Kliczko (2014). Often, however, they are awarded to writers37 – for the importance of themes addressed in literature, but also for extra-literary statements, ideological or political commitment – or at least: to people associated with literature. Next to the Bridge Award, the Vincenz Award, Man of Borderland and the Rzeczpospolita Award can be assigned to this category.

Geocultural Dimensions of ELPs

16Polish ELPs differ significantly in their geocultural understanding of Europe. Ideally, Europe-related literary prizes engage in a trans-national consecration practice, that is they are usually addressed to authors from the whole of Europe, although of course the interpretation of which entity is meant by “Europe” varies greatly. Do the prizes refer to Europe in its institutional-bureaucratic form, or does it mean a geographically conceived continental Europe or, for instance, a European “cultural area”?

1. • 38 In 2020, when the prize was awarded to the Northern Irish poet Sinéad Morrissey, Northern Ireland w (...)

   In the context of the Polish ELP scene, only the European Poet of Freedom has a pan-European scope. If one were to apply the criteria of the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), the only literary prize sponsored and fully financed by the European Commission (with high authority in the question of what can be seen as Europe), then since the conception of the European Poet of Freedom in 2010, the prize has been awarded four times to writers from one of the member states of the European Union (Germany, Croatia, Romania, Northern Ireland38), once to a writer from an EEA country (Iceland), twice to writers from (potential) candidate countries for accession (Albania and Ukraine), and to a writer from Belarus, a country excluded by the EUPL on the basis of its political conception of Europe – but which belongs to Europe culturally, geographically or geologically, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA). The perspective on Europe as a “community project” also gives the prize donors of the European Poet of Freedom the corresponding scope to define this European community itself territorially and to constitute it through their specific prize practice.
   What is true to a much greater extent for the prizes in the next category, but can be observed in the line-up of prize winners of the European Poet of Freedom, is that despite its pan-European orientation, the prize has a strong Central and Eastern European tilt.

2. An important geocultural limitation of the European dimension of Polish prizes is the functionalization of literary prizes to deepen Poland’s intercultural relations with a neighboring country. This category includes the Giedroyc Prize and the Conrad-Korzeniowski Prize, which are aimed only at authors in Belarus and Ukraine, respectively. In addition, there are prizes that have a clear focus on authors from a – in each case differently defined and scaled – larger cluster of Central and Eastern European countries. Besides, the Angelus which explicitly labels this in its title, this applies above all to Vincenz Award. In connection with these geocultural restrictions, a pattern can be discerned which we call Central Eastern European tilt and which we will discuss later.

3. The definition of ELPs also allows to consider prizes with a broader geocultural range as European, but still even for these theoretically broader prizes most of the winners have been from Europe (or, as can be seen in the example of the Man of Borderland and the New Europe Ambassador, authors mainly from Central and Eastern Europe). This pertains to the Bridge Award as well as to the Herbert Award, which in its ten-year history has been awarded six times to European authors, three times to US authors and once to a South African-French author (2017 – Breyten Breytenbach). By stating that the award is intended to “promote Poland’s cultural contribution – especially in the field of poetry – to the development of world literature, manifested in the exchange of ideas, values, and contemporary experiences” (PP/HA), the statutes make it clear that the award sees itself as an instrument to elevate Polish literature and literary scene to an international stage.

4. In some cases ELPs exclusively honor authors from the country of the awarding institution, which of course only partially does justice to the European idea. In these cases, prizes, donors, and juries award authors who, in their “own” country or in the territory of the national language, have contributed to the dissemination of ideological or aesthetic discourses that are situated in a European frame of reference. In Poland, this applies to the Trakl Competition, Staff Award and Identitas Award. The latter honors authors who – according to the statutes – “critically address the issues of the persistence, preservation, construction or dismantling of collective identities in the modern world,” which have developed “primarily thanks to the foundation of European culture, that is, Western culture in the broadest sense of the word” (PP/IA). However, the prize is aimed exclusively at Polish authors.

Organizational Dimensions of ELPs

17Patterns can also be discerned with regard to the institutional anchoring of the prizes, which are significant in terms of their content and geocultural references to Europe. Basically, literary prizes with a European program can be roughly divided into the following three categories: 1) prizes donated by EU institutions (including, in the narrowest sense, only the European Union Prize for Literature, which was launched by the European Commission in 2009 as part of the European cultural funding program Creative Europe); 2) prizes sponsored by European (member) states and their (state and city) organizations, and 3) those that are donated by various cultural institutions, foundations, associations, companies, publishers or private individuals.

18As for the Polish literary award landscape, six prizes with a European focus are awarded by the public sector, including three prizes that are donated by state institutions and three by City Council organizations. What is striking with regard to the prizes sponsored by state institutions is that all can be seen as a cultural policy activity seeking an impact on the cultural and literary landscapes of neighboring states. This is particularly evident in the case of the Giedroyc Award and Conrad-Korzeniowski Award, which are (co-)financed and (co-)organized by significant state institutions of Poland (the Embassy of Poland in Belarus along with the Polish Institute in Minsk, and the Polish Institute in Kyiv, respectively). With the Trakl Competition, founded in 1992 and discontinued five years later, it was the Austrian state, more precisely the Austrian Consul General in Krakow under Emil Brix, that became culturally involved in Poland’s cultural scene and founded the country’s first European Literature Prize there. In 2015, the prize, endowed with 1200 Zloty, was revived and awarded for three years in cooperation with the Polish “Urwany Film” Foundation as part of the Austria Days in Krakow. The reasons for seeking cooperation with explicitly non-governmental cultural institutions for the Trakl Competition – similar to the Giedroyc Award, in which the Belarusian PEN Centre and the Union of Belarusian Writers are involved – can be found in the fact that the organization of the literary prizes (the actual handling, appointment of the jury, press work, etc.) is dependent on the help of organizations that are better anchored in the literary and cultural field and operate far more effectively. Furthermore, they might have intended to cushion the accusation that they were interfering in the cultural affairs of foreign states in the case of Polish-Belarusian relations.

19The founders of the other awards examined in this study are mainly foundations with a cultural-political impetus (such as the Society for the Award of the International Bridge Prize of the European Cities of Zgorzelec/Görlitz and Identitas Foundation, both of which were founded specifically to establish a literary award, Center Borderland – of Arts, Cultures, Nations, Foundation for Zbigniew Herbert, Europejskie Centrum Solidarności Gdańsk, Kolegium Europy Wschodniej im. Jana Nowaka Jeziorańskiego, Wrocław), newspapers (such as Rzeczpospolita and Lente magazine) and a coffee house (Café Lente).

Diachronic Development of European-Related Prizes in Poland

20Did Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004 accelerate the unfolding of the ELP landscape? A diachronic view of the development of the prize landscape discussed here shows how strongly the institutional and cultural measures for Poland’s integration into the EU intertwine. The fact that nine out of thirteen of the prizes examined were launched after Poland’s accession to the EU can be read as a clear indication that Poland’s membership has brought about an intensification of the debate on the literary space of Europe at the level of cultural policy.

21The development of Polish ELPs can be divided into three main periods: first, the period before Poland’s accession to the EU (1989–2003); second, the immediate years after accession (2004–2009); and third, the period from 2010 to 2015.

22First phase: out of the thirteen prizes that are the subject of this analysis, only four were established before Poland’s accession to the European Union, namely the Trakl Competition in 1992 and the Bridge Prize in 1993, and a few years later the Man of Borderland (1999) and the Rzeczpospolita Award. Regarding the first two prize foundations, it is striking that the initiative did not come (or did not come alone) from Polish institutions, but rather from political actors and associations of the surrounding countries, Austria (the Austrian Consul General in Krakow Emil Brix) and Germany (Society for the Award of the International Bridge Prize of the European Cities of Zgorzelec/Görlitz).

23Second phase: in each of the three years following Poland’s accession to the EU, an ELP was launched in Poland – the Vincenz Prize in 2005, the Angelus in 2006, and the Conrad Korzeniowski Prize in 2007. In the first two cases, the cities of Wroclaw and Krakow (and a few years later, with the European Poet of Freedom, Gdansk) used the literature prize as an instrument to propagate Europe as a cultural-political value. The cities also have in common their proximity to the border and their historically strong roots in Central and Western European (especially Prussian and Austrian) culture. In terms of their topical dimension (Europe as a place of intercultural exchange and peacekeeping) and their geocultural transnational orientation (albeit with an unmistakable focus on Eastern Europe), the ELPs donated by municipal institutions share a comparatively strong references to Europe.

25Third phase: in the period from 2010 to 2015, when there was a literary award foundation almost every year except for 2012, it was mainly cultural foundations that became active: Vincenz Award (2010), Giedroyc Award and New Europe Ambassador (2011), Herbert Award (2013), Identitas Award (2014), Leopold Staff Award (2015). In addition, the Trakl Award was re-established in 2015 after an interruption of almost nineteen years.

27However, we could argue that the market is far from saturation in terms of pan-European prizes as only European Poet of Freedom (a prize limited to poetry) occupies this space. If this hypothesis were to hold ground, it would mean that the Polish literary market is incredibly shallow.

28The fact that no prizes with a pan-European appeal were established by the state may not be surprising, since the right-wing conservative party PiS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) [Law and justice], which won the elections in 2015 and 2019, does not hide its skepticism about Europe and European Union. It is not surprising that the Polish state does not aim to increase awareness about the EU or does not prioritize cultural relations with Western Europe. The lack of prizes is still noteworthy as a cultural policy, as we could imagine other policies being implemented (e.g. pan-European prizes with a conservative spin, etc.). However, PiS foreign policy was far more oriented toward exchanges with Eastern European countries, and since – as will be shown below – the Polish landscape of ELPs seemed saturated with awards focused on Eastern Europe, hence the establishment of new ones with similar agenda did not seem necessary.

Understanding the Central-Eastern European Tilt

29The geocultural limitation of the European dimension of prizes exhibits a pattern that we call the Central-Eastern European tilt. The data collection carried out as part of this work has shown that all the prizes considered here are situated (to varying extents) in a Central and/or Eastern European context, whether in terms of their topical, geocultural or organizational dimension.

30Both the bilaterally oriented prizes (Bridge Award, Trakl Competition, Giedroyc Award and Conrad-Korzeniowski Award) and the prizes that are not radically pan-European but have a scope encompassing several European countries (Angelus, Vincenz Award, Man of Borderland Award and New Europe Ambassador Award) show a conspicuous centering on Central and Eastern Europe in their award practice, and that, regardless of how strong their European reference is on a topical level.

31The picture thickens when we look at the percentage distribution of countries from which the winners of Polish ELPs come. If all literary prizes within the scope of analysis are taken together, then a total of 37,3 percent of the laureates are from Poland itself. The majority of laureates come from the neighboring country Ukraine (20.3 percent), 18.3 percent from Belarus, and 2.0 percent from three countries: Germany, Czechia and Austria, the first two of which are Poland's neighbors. Noteworthy is the presence of the USA (1.3 percent), as the only country outside Europe.

32In order to test the thesis stating that even the prizes that have a transnational (in a sense European) orientation ultimately have a strong Central or Eastern European orientation, it seems useful to disregard for a moment the five prizes that are aimed exclusively at authors from a single country such as Conrad-Korzeniowski Award (Ukraine), Giedroyc Award (Belarus), Trakl Award, Identitas Award, and the Staff Prize (all Poland). In this case, the picture is as follows.

42

34The chronology of the Angelus Award winners shows how ELPs function as a political instrument, this is evident when ethical criteria in the jury’s decision-making process take precedence over aesthetic ones. Only one country besides Hungary (the prize went to Hungarian authors twice) has produced several laureates, namely Ukraine with no less than four laureates. The awards given to Ukrainian authors are to be read as direct reflections on events in the country’s recent history: on the Orange Revolution of 2004, on the Euromaidan, that is the protests that lasted from November 2013 to February 2014 following the announcement by the Ukrainian government that it did not want to sign the planned association agreement with the European Union, or on the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and finally a reflection on Putin’s incipient provocations in the run-up to the Russian invasion of February 2022. With Yuri Andrukhovych (first edition in 2006), Oksana Stefanivna Zabuzhko (2013) and Kharkiv-based Serhiy Zhadan (2015), Angelus has been awarded not only to renowned Ukrainian writers who have repeatedly addressed Russia’s cultural chauvinist attitude towards the emancipation movements of the former Soviet republics in their works. It is worth noting that these aforementioned writers were intensively involved in the events of 2004 and 2013/2014 both as activists and reporters (for international media).

Central-Eastern European Tilt and the Polish Book Market?

39Unsurprisingly, the geocultural focus of Polish ELPs on the Central and Eastern European region coincides with the focus of scholarly research in the field of literature. As far as secondary publications appearing on the Polish book market are concerned, the focus is on the study of Austrian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian literature, as the graph shows (see Figure 5). Interestingly, the Central-Eastern European tilt of the Polish ELP scene is clearly at odds with the disposition of the Polish book market as far as fiction literature is concerned, and thus one might conclude, with the reading interests and habits of Poles. The Polish book market has been dominated – since the beginning of the study period in 1989 – by American book publications by a wide margin, with French and German literature fighting for second place.

41Ukrainian book publications (to give just one example) play a marginal role on the Polish book market – with the exception of the politically precarious year 2022, when Poland’s neighboring country became the focus of international reporting due to Russia’s invasion. The focus on Central and Eastern Europe is, to repeat, a deliberate (cultural) political decision by decision-makers, on the one hand, to promote those literary fields that are not already the focus of international attention, and, on the other hand, to draw an alternative vision of the community – to the traditional image of Europe – via the instrument of the “literary prize.”

Conclusion

42Although Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004 gave a decisive impulse to the development of the Europe-related prize landscape in the country, the literary prizes show that the cultural-political concept of Europe in Poland remains limited to the neighboring Central and Eastern European states, quite independently of the European Commission’s efforts to create a pan-European cultural identity. This makes clear, first, that culturally grown neighborly relations undermine those concepts of identity that are brought in from the outside – for example, through integration initiatives of the European Commission (i.a. through Europe-wide funding measures such as the Creative Europe program, which ultimately also has a community-building function). Moreover, the case of Polish ELPs shows that the label “Europe” proves to be extremely flexible and autonomous in geocultural terms.

Appendix: Prize Profiles (online)

44Angelus [PP/A] – Literacka Nagroda Europy Środkowej Angelus,http://angelus.com.pl/​english/​.

45Bridge Award [PP/BA] – Międzynarodowa Nagroda Mostu, https://zgorzelec.eu/​zgorzelec-2/​miasto/​laureaci-nagrody-mostu/​.

46Conrad-Korzeniowski Award [PP/CKA] – Nagroda Literacka imienia Josepha Conrada-Korzeniowskiego, http://www.polinst.kyiv.ua/​storage/​regulamin_nagrody_konrada_2019-2.pdf.

47Europe Poet of Freedom [PP/EPF] – Nagroda Literacka Miasta Gdańska Europejski Poeta Wolności, https://europejskipoetawolnosci.pl/​o-nagrodzie/​?lang=en.

48Giedroyc Award [PP/GA] – Nagrodę im. Jerzego Giedroycia, https://www.nck.pl/​projekty-kulturalne/​projekty/​nagroda-im-jerzego-giedroycia/​o-nagrodzie-im-jerzego-giedroycia.

49Herbert Award [PP/HA] – Nagrodzie im. Zbigniewa Herberta, https://fundacjaherberta.com/​en/​the-herbert-prize/​about-the-zbigniew-herbert-prize/​.

50Identitas Award [PP/IA] – Nagroda Identitas, https://identitas.pl/​bez-maski-warsztaty-w-arktyce/​.

51Man of Borderland [PP/MOF] – Człowiek Pogranicza, https://www.pogranicze.sejny.pl/​programy-wyspa/​czowiek-pogranicza/​.

52New Europe Ambassador [PP/NEA] – Ambasador Nowej Europy, https://ecs.gda.pl/​ambasador-nowej-europy/​?fbclid=IwAR2GSeRzS39iiJx8U3ptzsuOAXlopcCMAx_Zj9nRZb56kQR7N0NDWi2ahUY.

53Rzeczpospolita Award [PP/RA] – Nagroda „Rzeczpospolitej” im. Jerzego Giedroycia,https://kulturaparyska.com/​pl/​article/​history/​innenagrody/​nagroda-rzeczpospolitej-im-jerzego-giedroycia.

54Staff Award [PP/SA] – Nagroda Literacka im. Leopolda Staffa, http://nagrodaliterackastaffa.pl/​o-nagrodzie/​.

55Trakl Competition [PP/TC] – Ogólnopolski Konkurs Poetycki im. Georga Trakla, http://fundacjaurwanyfilm.pl/​dzialamy/​trakl-tat/​.

56Vincenz Award [PP/VA] – Nagroda Rady Miasta Krakowa im. Stanisława Vincenza, https://www.bip.krakow.pl/​?dok_id=132926.