"Null" by Szczepan Twardoch wins the Nike Literary Award 2026
This year's Nike winner, Szczepan Twardoch, received PLN 100,000. PLN and a statuette by Gustaw Zemła. The jury, chaired by Witold Bereś, included Anna Arno, Bogdan Białek, Andrzej Brzeziecki, Zbigniew Mentzel, Natasza Parzymies, Radosław Romaniuk and Katarzyna Sawicka-Mierzyńska.
This time, the jurors and recipients agreed - Twardoch's book, published in 2025 by Marginesy, also won the readers' poll of "Gazeta Wyborcza".
"He considers Russian aggression evil - and that is enough for him"
As the chairman of the jury, Witold Bereś, wrote in his laudation: "We live in great fear and this book can change us and teach us where we make mistakes. (...) The award does not result from the context, it is great literature, it is a language without political correctness, which was created to describe this war." As Bereś recalled, the hero of the novel, nicknamed Koń, is a Polish volunteer fighting in Ukraine.
His biography is complicated, just like the biographies of millions of Poles who suddenly find their grandfather's bones, either in a Wehrmacht uniform or in an Israeli kibbutz, or who cannot find them because they are buried in the dust of vileness in Volhynia. But the hero of the book goes to this front not because he has solved all his own problems. Not because he is looking for an answer to the question of who he is, he said.
He comes because he considers Russian aggression to be evil - and that is enough for him to side with someone else. First of all, Szczepan Twardoch created the language of this war. This is brutal, physical language, dirty with mud and blood. It contains sweat, physiology, frontline curses, Russianisms, Ukrainianisms and the technical jargon of the 21st century war. Of course, this language is politically incorrect, because out of hatred we use this language to describe the enemy in Poland. Those who are outraged by Twardoch's approach know perfectly well that they say so themselves: the enemy is a fag, a nigger spreading diseases or a pimp. We needed this story, also in the context of the growing atmosphere of violence in Poland, not to mention the pogrom atmosphere. Because today in Poland there is a growing aversion to Ukrainians. And you can hear: "Get out of Ukraine," Bereś recalled.
But fortunately, “Null” is not a political leaflet against this reluctance. Good literature is not meant to tell us who we should like. It is supposed to do something more difficult - it is not to allow us to look away from another person, even if his memory hurts our memory or he is not the hero from our fairy tale. And "Null" is very good literature, added the chairman of the jury.
Bereś also said that it is also a book about loneliness in the face of technology. How often do we fear the invisible eye of a drone? (...) While reading this novel, we keep our fingers crossed for the suffering Ukrainians, but we know that these drones may one day come here and eat us, said Bereś. “What is literature that does not save nations or people?” - quoted Miłosz.
"I described what I saw or what I was told"
This is my most important book. (...) This is not a novel written about any issue, it has no thesis, it does not fight for anything. I wrote it to tell the truth, because that's what literature is for, said Szczepan Twardoch from the stage, adding that he believes in Ukraine and supports it, but, as he added, "literature is different" and works beyond immediate events.
I think I wrote this book with tenderness towards my characters. (...) There is something terrible and scandalous about it that people who should be studying, dating, having fun, traveling around the world have been sitting in the mud for 11 years and could die every day. I do not consent to this, said Szczepan Twardoch in 2025, in an interview on the occasion of the premiere of the novel.
"Null" is a novel about a real war, but the characters and events described in it are fictional, because they have to be. So that I can describe this war as close to the truth as I can. Brigades with the numbers given in the book do not exist, but there are others with different numbers. Similarities to real characters, events and military units may or may not be coincidental. I made up very little of it. I described what I saw or what I was told. I saw some of this war with my own eyes, but of course I didn't see everything that is described in the novel. Because if I saw everything, we wouldn't be talking today. However, I can listen carefully. And in Ukraine the situation is simple. This country wants to be independent - one where Ukrainians can live as they like. On the other side, we have a country that has been conquering other countries for six hundred years and whose modus operandi is based on pure violence. There is even a saying that Russia's borders are wherever it wants them to be. There is no reason for us to agree to this. In this sense, it's my war - he added in an interview with the Polish Press Agency.
We know Twardoch from "Morphine" and "The King"
Szczepan Twardoch is the author of several novels and short story collections, including: "Morfina" (2012), "Drach" (2014), "Król" (2016), "Królestwo" (2018), "Pokora" (2020), "Chołod" (2022). His books have sold over a million copies. Since the end of 2022, he has been involved in helping the Ukrainian Armed Forces. So far, he has collected PLN 2 million in public collections and personally delivers purchased drones, cars and military equipment to the front. For his activities on behalf of the Ukrainian army, he was awarded the Stand with Ukraine award in 2024. He lives in Pilchowice in Upper Silesia.
Who else was nominated?
Apart from Twardoch, Nike's final seven included:
