Olga Tokarczuk is considered the most important Polish author of her generation. Together with her translator Karol Lesman, she won the 2024 European Literature Prize for her novel The Empusium. In 2018 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, having previously won the Man Booker International Prize (in 2008) and Poland’s most prestigious literary prize, the Nike Award (in 2015). In addition to The Empusium, the following books by her have been published in Dutch translation: Bieguni (Flights), Księgi Jakubowe (The Books of Jacob), Prawiek i inne czasy (Primeval and Other Times), Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych (Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead) and Czuły narrator (The Tender Narrator). 

Tokarczuk engaged in conversation with Margot Dijkgraaf about the role of literature in our contemporary European society. Following this, she discussed winning the 2024 European Prize of Literature and the significance of translation, joined by her translator Karol Lesman and jury chair Niña Weijers.