Małgorzata Lebda’s “Mer de Glace” shortlisted for the 2026 PEN Heaney Prize
Mer de Glace is one of the most significant works in Lebda’s oeuvre and her first poetry collection available in English. Its publication by the prestigious Fitzcarraldo Editions was supported by the Book Institute through the ©Poland Translation Programme.
The book, awarded the prestigious Wisława Szymborska Prize in 2022, was written as a result of the author’s extraordinary undertaking: running 1,100 kilometres along the Vistula River, from its source in the Beskids to its mouth at the Baltic Sea. The collection has so far been published in Italian by Valigie Rosse (2024, translated by Linda Del Sarto), in English by Fitzcarraldo Editions (2026, translated by Mira Rosenthal), in Serbian by Treći Trg (2026, translated by Biserka Rajčić), and in Ukrainian by Krok (translated by Anna Zotova). Further editions are in preparation, including Danish, Finnish, Spanish, Lithuanian and Swedish editions. The American edition from Fitzcarraldo Editions will be published on November 3, 2026.
The PEN Heaney Prize was established in 2024 by English PEN, Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann and the estate of Seamus Heaney. The prize honours the Irish poet and 1995 Nobel laureate, whose work combined the land and the realities of everyday labour with reflections on violence and conflict in Northern Ireland. It recognises a poetry collection by a single author, published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, that demonstrates outstanding literary merit and explores the impact of cultural or political events on human lives and relationships. Both books written in English and translations into English are eligible.
Mira Rosenthal, the translator of Mer de Glace, grew up in California. She is the author of Territorial, a finalist for the INDIES Book of the Year Award, and The Local World, which received the Wick Poetry Prize. Her translations of Polish poetry include Tideline by Krystyna Dąbrowska and Colonies by Tomasz Różycki, which won the Northern California Book Award and were nominated for several other honours, including the International Griffin Poetry Prize and the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize. In 2025, she received the Found in Translation Award for her translation of another collection by Tomasz Różycki, To the Letter.