P olish poet Adam Zagajewski, whom the New York Review of Books has called "one of the most familiar and highly regarded names in poetry both in Europe and this country," was selected by an international jury representing eight countries as the 2004 laureate of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, administered by the University of Oklahoma and its international quarterly, World Literature Today. Zagajewski is the 18th recipient of the Neustadt Prize, and the second from Poland to be named Neustadt laureate.

Zagajewski was born in Lvov, in what is now the Ukraine, in 1945. He and his family, which had lived for centuries in Lvov, were forcibly repatriated to western Poland shortly after his birth. He spent his childhood in Gliwice, in Silesia. Zagajewski, who is widely considered to be the preeminent Polish poet of his generation, moved to Paris in exile in 1982. Until recently, he resided in Paris, where he served as co-editor of Zeszyty Literackie (Literary Review), but now lives in Krakow and teaches creative writing at the University of Houston each spring.

"Adam Zagajewski is a true poet of the 21st century, a realist whose intention is always to transform the pain of modern life into beauty," said Robert Con Davis-Undiano, executive director of World Literature Today. "He is at times dark in what he discusses, but he is never in despair. The world is going to hear a lot more about Zagajewski, this poet of hope, and I'm delighted that once again the Neustadt Prize will introduce a brilliant writer to a much larger reading audience."

"A writer of undeniable international repute, Adam Zagajewski has been widely anthologized and published in Polish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, German, Swedish, and Greek," said David Clark, editor in chief of World Literature Today. "He was an active dissident in Europe during the 1970s, and his work - both poetry and prose - reflects the author's ongoing interest in the philosophical and political aspects of totalitarianism."