Polish journalists receive Czeslaw Milosz Award

US Ambassador Stephen Mull (L), with Czeslaw Milosz Award-winners Malgorzata Niezabitowska (2L) and Tomasz Tomaszewski (2R), and Foreign Minister of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Jakubowski

The annual Czeslaw Milosz Award, which is named after the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet who taught at Berkeley, California, for several decades, went to Malgorzata Niezabitowska and Tomasz Tomaszewski, and was presented during last night's 4th of July celebrations.

The couple have just completed a follow-up to their award-winning 1988 feature for National Geographic, “Discovering America,” which spawned an exhibition that was shown across Poland.

After 25 years, they returned to the places that had inspired then on that first trip.

“I have visited more than 60 countries while working for National Geographic, but none has fascinated me to the extent that the United States has,” Tomaszewski told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

“For me, what distinguishes it above is all is the metaphysical sense of freedom,” he reflected, adding that “America is a country that defies description, a world divided into separate states, each of which is a separate world in itself.”

The Czeslaw Milosz Award has been presented since 2006, and previous recipients have included film-maker Andrzej Wajda and poet Adam Zagajewski.

Click here for Polish Radio English Section's special 4th of July show. (nh)