Maciej
Siembieda
Writer and journalist. Born on 28 April 1961 in Starachowice, Poland. He is a graduate of Polish Studies at the Higher School of Pedagogy in Opole and holds a doctorate in Social Sciences. He has worked as a journalist and editor-in-chief for several regional Polish newspapers, including Nowa Trybuna Opolska, Trybuna Śląska and Dziennik Bałtycki. His articles have appeared in Polityka, Tygodnik Kulturalny and the Paris-based Kultura. He is also the author of four reportage collections and a personal book on the art of reportage writing, Reportaż po polsku. He is a three-time laureate of the Polish equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, awarded by the Polish Journalists' Association (in 1992 and with an honourable mention in 1993 and 1996). He debuted as a novelist in 2017 and quickly became one of Poland's most popular thriller writers. He has published ten novels, three of which were nominated for Poland's most prestigious crime fiction award, the Grand Calibre. In 2023, he won this reader-voted award for his novel Katharsis. Siembieda has been a four-time finalist in the Książka Roku (Book of the Year) poll run by lubimyczytac.pl, the largest Polish literary portal. In 2024, he won the poll with his novel Kairos, which was named Book of the Year by readers. Film rights for six of his ten novels have been sold for screen adaptations. He writes novels based on true events, exploring obscure historical enigmas that he has uncovered and documented during his thirty-plus years as a journalist.
pic. Renata Dąbrowska
