Jacek Dukaj, born in 1974, is the most distinguished Polish science-fiction writer of today, widely considered a successor of Stanislaw Lem. He studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. The Europe­an Literary Award, which he won in 2009, shows that the merit of his work transcends a narrowly defined genre. His short stories have been translated into English, German, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Slovakian, Ukrainian.