Zyta Rudzka with the Nike Literary Award for “He who laughs who has teeth”! A hairdresser who “marches for freedom”

– By awarding Zyta Rudzka for her novel “He who laughs, who has teeth”, we are distinguishing important prose that engages the reader, fiction so gripping that it answers questions asked about reality – said Iwasiów, presenting the award to Zyta Rudzka. The writer, thanking for the distinction, said about the hairdresser Wera, who is the main character of “He who laughs who has teeth”:

She marches throughout the novel, marches for her freedom, makes such an existential effort every day simply to survive, to live, but also to live, above all, on her own terms. Thank you very much.

Zyta Rudzka wins the Nike Literary Award for “He who laughs who has teeth”

The novel “He Who Laughs Who Has Teeth” is a monologue by Wera, a former hairdresser who has just become a widow and – plunged into increasing poverty – wanders through Warsaw to get things necessary for her husband’s burial: she is looking for shoes, clothes, vodka for the wake.

– “He who laughs who has teeth” follows the pattern of a fairy tale and sounds more than just a dental parable – from the title, through subsequent departures from home, visits to friends, to the funeral home and to the past. Through sayings, blunt phrases, sales and scenes, Wera recreates life, sensual and multi-threaded. One mourning allows for another mourning, for a lover. Zyta Rudzka describes the world of love in which erotic freedom is common and prohibitions apply to mourning. It is not the sex that is “wrong”, but the lack of emotional moderation. Wera is unromantic, but persistent. He stubbornly starts the next day, furiously responds to adversity. It does not feel nostalgic, but rather a disruption of ownership of what is hard-earned. In Rudzka’s narrative, buying and losing are strongly linked to physical exercise, which restores the direct value of matter – said Iwasiów in her laudation.

“Wera, walking around the city, collecting items needed to bury her husband, whom Rudzka made the main character, is a character so extraordinary and at the same time so real, a character rarely seen in literature. I have already been fascinated by the author’s language, but I have the impression that ” “He Who Laughs Who Has Teeth” is the most “human” of her books that I have read – I can’t think of a better word for it. Wera, who is a widow, but above all a woman, similar to those Rudzka met who traded in relatively valuable remnants of life in Warsaw’s Wolumen, holding their heads high… “It’s hard to find good shoes for a dead man” – a men’s hairdresser begins his story, which is ambiguous, provocative for many, but is itself” – .

Audience Award for Grzegorz Piątek

This year, the Audience Award – Readers’ Nike – went to Grzegorz Piątek for the book “Gdynia promised. City, modernism, modernization 1920-1939”. This information is revealed even before the ceremony by the editorial office of “Gazeta Wyborcza”, whose readers decide on the winner in this category.

This year, the seven books nominated for the award are three novels, three reports and one volume of poetry: “Crossing the threshold, I will whistle” by Wiktoria Bieżuńska, “Cena. In search of Jewish children after the war” by Anna Bikont, “Trash story” by Mateusz Górniak, “The Promised Gdynia. City, Modernism, Modernization 1920-1939” by Grzegorz Piątek, “He who laughs who has teeth” by Zyta Rudzka, “Years of Practice” by Piotr Sommer and “Migot. From the End of Greenland” by Ilona Wiśniewska. Each finalist receives a commemorative pen.

The winner of the Nike Literary Award receives PLN 100,000. PLN and a statuette designed by Gustaw Zemła. This year, the chairman of the jury is Inga Iwasiów, and the other members are: Marek Beylin, Przemysław Czapliński, Justyna Jaworska, Tadeusz Nyczek, Masza Potocka, Krzysztof Siwczyk, Maria Topczewska and Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz. This year’s edition of the Nike Literary Award is supported by Amazon.pl. The award is sponsored by the Agora Foundation.