Małgorzata Lebda

Author of Voracious

Małgorzata Lebda (1985) is a poet, scientist, and columnist. She holds a Ph.D. in Literary Theory and Audiovisual Arts and is a lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She is a culture animator, conducting literary and poetry workshops and curating cultural events. She has published eight volumes of poetry. Her book Matecznik (Queen Cells, 2016) won Kraków Book of the Month, the Stanistaw Barańczak Fellowship, the Poznan Literary Award, and the Konstanty Ildenfons Gałczyński Prize. Her poetry book Sny uckermarkerów (Uckermarker Dreams, 2018), was shortlisted for the Silesius Literary Award and won the 2019 Gdynia Literary Prize - one of the most prestigious and significant awards in Poland - in the Poetry category. Her poetry book Mer de Glace (2021) was shortlisted for the Silesius Literary Award (the most important Polish poetry award) and won the prestigious Wisława Szymborska Award for Best Poetry Book. Her poetry books have been published in Serbian, Czech, Ukrainian, Italian, Danish, Slovenian, Romanian and English. Mer de Glace (2021) will be published in 2026 by Fitzcarraldo Editions in translation by Mira Rosenthal.

Łakome (Voracious), is her debut novel. Following its publication, Lebda won Empik’s Best Newcomer in Poland . Łakome was shortlisted for the Angelus Prize, the Conrad Prize, and the NIKE Literary Award. The translation rights to the novel have been sold to 10 territories, and acclaimed director Jagoda Szelc is working on a film adaptation. For her most recent collection of poems, Dunaj. Chyłe pola (2025), Lebda was awarded The Kościelski Award. Past winners of this award include Sławomir Mrożek, Zbigniew Herbert, Jerzy Pilch, Paweł Huelle, Jacek Dukaj, Andrzej Stasiuk and Olga Tokarczuk.

Lebda is currently working on her second novel. She is also a photographer and marathon runner, and ran a distance of 1,113 kilometres along the Vistula River as part of her activism/poetry project “Reading Water”. She lives with her pack in the mountains on the border between Poland and Slovakia.

Praise for Voracious:

“Lebda’s prose is exceptional - she has successfully created a microcosmos where everything is interconnected, dying and full of life at the same time.” Polityka

“Lebda has a rare and fabulous sense of language, of the meaning of words, a way of anchoring and transforming them.” Gazeta Wyborcza