# Mariusz Szczygieł

Mariusz Adam Szczygieł (Polish pronunciation:; born 5 September 1966 Złotoryja, Poland) is a Polish journalist and writer. He is the winner of the 2009 European Book Prize for Gottland and the 2019 Nike Award, the most important prize in Polish literature.

## Life and career

He graduated in journalism and political science from the University of Warsaw in 2000. At 16, he began writing for the weekly-paper Na przełaj. In spite of communist-era censorship, he published a shocking collection of reports titled The Shrift, which were about gay and lesbian youth in Poland.
As a TV presenter of the popular cultural and current affairs programme Na każdy temat (On Every Topic) Szczygieł became the first person to publicly speak the word "orgasm" on air.
In 2002, he stopped working for TV Polsat and concentrated on writing for Gazeta Wyborcza. Presently, he is the senior deputy editor of the weekly supplement Duży Format and deputy editor of its reportage-section.
His work is cited in most anthologies of contemporary Polish journalism. Most notable are his studies of the Czechoslovak, and especially Czech, culture and life-style. His best-selling book Gottland (2006), was described by Adam Michnik, as the first cubistic reportage of the world. Gottland received the European Book Prize, the Polish Booksellers Prize. and the Nike Audience Award. In 2019 he won Nike Award, for his reportage Nie ma, which won both the Jury Prize and the Audience Poll.
His works have been translated into Czech, English, Estonian, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

## Personal life

Szczygieł is an outspoken atheist. In his 2022 book Fakty muszą zatańczyć (The Facts Must Dance) he came out as a gay man.

## Criticism

Polish politician and activist Jan Śpiewak criticized Mariusz Szczygieł in 2025 during an episode of his podcast, describing him as an example of someone insensitive to the obstacles faced by younger generations in the property market. Śpiewak referred to Szczygieł's own words, in which he shared his experience of acquiring a new flat after just one year of work in Warsaw in the mid-1990s:
* “Ten years after arriving in Warsaw in 1995, I was offered the opportunity to host a television program. I wasn't eager, I didn't feel the need. 'In a year, you’ll buy a two-room apartment,' said the producer, and I gave in. He was right, a miniature two-room apartment, a year later it was mine, and there was a cat in it. A home exists for me when there’s a cat in it."*
In contrast, Szczygieł’s more recent statement on the matter was: *“And what do young people think today? Generation Z rides rented bikes, travels, and constantly changes career paths. Owning an apartment is not a lifestyle.”* — Mariusz Szczygieł
Śpiewak and his co-host, journalist Zofia Sobczak, pointed out that while Szczygieł views young people's inability to acquire their own homes as a lifestyle choice, preferring the sharing economy, the real issue that Szczygieł fails to acknowledge is that young people face job instability, experience high levels of generational inequality, and are confronted with skyrocketing property prices that far outpace wage growth. Both Sobczak and Śpiewak argued that Szczygieł's generation, who were able to purchase properties relatively easily and at low cost, particularly before the 2008_financial_crisis, fails to understand the challenges faced by today's youth. Śpiewak, questioning how someone who calls himself a journalist, like Szczygieł, can be so out of touch, urged him to “look around once in a while,” criticizing his attitude as typical of the neoliberal generation to which Szczygieł belongs.

## Awards and honours

* 1993: Polish Journalists' Association Award
* 1996: Kryształowe Zwierciadło Award
* 1997: Polsat TV Award (Best Talk Show category)
* 2000: Award of the Polish Primate
* 2004: Melchior Award
* 2007: Beata Pawlak Award
* 2007: Nike Audience Award for Gottland
* 2007: Angelus Award finalist
* 2009: Prix Amphi in Lille
* 2009: European Book Prize for Gottland
* 2013: Journalist of the Year Award
* 2014: Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
* 2014: Bene Merito Honorary Badge
* 2019: Nike Award for Nie ma

## Works

* Niedziela, która zdarzyła się w środę (Sunday that Happened on Wednesday), Warsaw 1996;
* Na każdy temat – talk show do czytania, with Witold Orzechowski, (On Every Topic), Warsaw 1997;
* Gottland, Berlin 2008;
* 20 lat nowej Polski w reportażach według Mariusza Szczygła (20 Years of New Poland in Reportage Writing), Wołowiec 2009;
* Kaprysik. Damskie historie, Warszawa 2010;
* Zrób sobie raj (Make Your Own Paradise), Wołowiec 2010;
* Láska nebeská, Warsaw 2012;
* Projekt: prawda (Project: Truth), Warsaw 2016;
* Nie ma, Warsaw 2018
* Osobisty przewodnik po Pradze (A Personal Guide Through Praga), Warsaw 2020.
* Fakty muszą zatańczyć (The Facts Must Dance), Warsaw 2022.
In anthologies
* Kraj Raj (The Land Paradise), Warsaw 1993;
* Wysokie Obcasy. Twarze (High Heels. Faces), Warsaw 2003;
* Ouvertyr till livet, Stockholm 2003;
* La vie est un reportage. Anthologie du reportage litteraire polonais, Montricher 2005;
* Von Minsk nach Manhattan. Polnische reportagen, Vienna 2006.