Biografia
(b. 1974) – writer and journalist. He is the author of the stories Glass works (2005) as well as the novels The Street (2001), Sawmill (2003), Don’t Let It Be A Dream (2008) and Chronicle of the Death (2010). His texts are included in contemporary literature anthologies. Odija’s books have been translated into French (La Sciere - Gallimard), German (Zsolnay) and Ukrainian (Knigi XXI).
He was granted the Pomeranian Artistic Award 2001 for his debut novel The Street, which also caused a scandal. Sawmill won Pomeranian Artistic Award 2003 and Prize for the best Gdańsk’s book, it was also nominated for the NIKE Award in 2004 – the most important award in Poland; a theater production based on The Sawmill has been directed by Agnieszka Olsten. Don’t Let It Be A Dream was nominated for European Literature Award in 2009, Chronicle of the Dead was nominated for the NIKE Award in 2011.
Odija does not limit himself, however, to painting precise pictures, which are often even meticulous in their description, and describing the specifics of our "here and now". His texts time and again break realistic conventions, aiming for universality or even allegory. Thus these stories about everyday concerns and problems turn into stories about the passing of time and how one reconciles oneself to it, of the eternal cycle of birth and death, and the struggle between good and evil; and these precise descriptions of the present are saturated with a fleeting poetry.
Useful links:
http://www.bookinstitute.pl/en,ik,site,40,78,1761.php
http://czarne.com.pl/?a=77