guests from Poland

Sculptor, creator of installations, one of the most eminent and best-known Polish contemporary artists. He studied from 1980 to 1985 at the Department of Sculpture at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He earned his degree at the studio of Professor Jan Kucza in 1985. Since the beginning of his artistic career, his work and his personality have inspired both enthusiasm and controversy.

Polish writer, publicist, academic teacher. She is a graduate of Cultural Studies and the School of Social Sciences in Wrocław. She lectures in the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology at the Department of Japanese Culture. She belongs to a group of people of the young generation who started a feminist debate in Poland. She conducted seminars on that subject at the University of Warsaw from 1996 till 1998.

Co-author of liberature books and liberature theoretician, translator, researcher of the literary output of James Joyce, assistant professor at the Institute of English Philology of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The editor of the unique „Liberatura” series of the Korporacja Ha! Art publishing house, a co-founder of the Liberature Reading Room in Krakow. Together with Zenon Fajfer she published a book trilogy Oka-leczenie (2000-2009) – the first book defined as liberature and (O)patrzenie (2003), which initiated an editorial series of liberature.

Graduate of English philology and cultural science within Interfaculty Individual Studies in the Humanities at the University of Warsaw, assistant in the Department of Literary European Science of the Institute for Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), doctoral student in the School of Social Sciences of PAN, holder of scholarships granted by Fulbright, the Polityka weekly and the Ministry of National Education and Sport.

Polish historian of literature, critic of contemporary literature. He started studies at the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where he obtained the title of Master in 1986. In 1997 he defended a habilitation dissertation, which resulted in granting the title of Professor of the Adam Mickiewicz University already in the following year.

Cultural agitator, essayist, director, translator, head of the Pogranicze Centre and the Pogranicze Foundation in Sejny, which focuses on the promotion of multicultural regions of Central-Eastern Europe. He is a graduate of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in Polish language studies (his masters thesis was on the subject of Czesław Miłosz’s works). Initially, he was strongly associated with the declamation movement and amateur theatre. From 1978 to 1983 he worked as an actor and instructor in the Gardzienice Theatre Association.

Born in 1974. He studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. He debuted as a sixteen-year-old with the short story “Galer’s Gold” published in February 1990 in the monthly “Fantastyka”. Further short stories were printed in the literary periodical “Fenix” and in “Nowa Fantastyka”, and in 1997 Dukaj's book debut of the novel “Xavras Wyżryn” came out. The author of “Black oceans”, “Extenses”, “The Plunderer’s Daughters”, “Other Songs”, “Perfect Imperfection”, “Ice” and several short stories collected, among others, in the volume “In the Country of the Unfaithful”.

Poet, creator and theoretician of liberature (the essay Liberatura. Aneks do słownika terminów literackich /Liberature. Annex to the Dictionary of Literary Terms/, 1999), author of kinetic poems and poems-signs, theatre artist. Co-founder of the Liberature Reading Room in Krakow, editor of Ha!art’s editorial series of liberature. Co-author of the first liberature books (together with Katarzyna Bazarnik): Oka-leczenie (2000-2009) and (O)patrzenie (2003), author of the book-bottle Spoglądając przez ozonową dziurę (Looking Through the Ozone Hole) (2004).

Polish poet, author of short stories, and translator. She is an adjunct at the University of Warsaw, and gives classes in American literature, literary theory and ecological critique. She has been recognised by the Polish Association of Book Publishers for the best debut of the year (2002). She is also a laureate of the Hubert Burda award for her verses published in the periodical “Manuskripte” (2005). She is the author of the poetry books “Listopad nad Narwią” (November on the Narew, 2000), “Bio” (2004), “Planeta rzeczy zagubionych” (Planet of Lost Things, 2006) and “Tlen” (Oxygen, 2009).

Prose writer, essayist, poet, and columnist. He has worked, among other positions, as a television and radio journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of the literary and arts magazine “Nowy Wiek”. For several years he hosted the programme on new publications, “Czytelnia”, for TVP Kultura. He has also published his own collections of short stories “Trzy historye” (Three Storys, 2001), “Szmermel” (Squib, 2004) and “Algi, kalki, zębatki” (Algae, Calques, and Cogs, 2004).

Sociologist, culture expert. He studied at the University of Łódź, where he still works. His favourite subjects include contemporary sociological theories, problems of 20th century culture and art, intercultural communication, rules and strategies of public discourse. He published his texts in Przegląd Kulturoznawczy and Przegląd Socjologiczny.

Polish journalist, publicist, translator of Jewish origin. In 1976 he graduated from psychology at the University of Warsaw. He co-operated with the Workers’ Defence Committee (KOR) and was one of the founders of the independent Jewish Flying University (1979) and the Polish Council of Christians and Jews. During the martial law he avoided being interned and published his articles in the underground press as Dawid Warszawski. Since the very beginning he has co-operated with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, for which he wrote as a war correspondent from Bosnia in years 1992-1995.

Well-known journalist and author of reportages for Gazeta Wyborcza. In 2009, together with Marcin Kowalski, he received the Grand Press award for the best press reportage in the most prestigious journalistic competition in Poland. Both journalists received awards for the text Ukochany syn Wielkiego Wodza (The Beloved Son of the Great Leader), which was published in the Duży Format addition to Gazeta Wyborcza.

One of the most fascinating Polish poets and critics of literature, translator of works including those of Wallace Stevens, John Ashbery, and Simon Armitage. He is an academic worker at the Institute of English Philology at the University of Opole. He is the author of five books of poetry: Wiersze pod nieobecność [Verses in Absentia], Aurora, X, Linia życia [Life Line], and Inne tempo [A Different Tempo], which was nominated to the NIKE literary awards in 2009. His fascination with the poetry of Wallace Stevens has helped to shape his own work.

Literature expert and critic, poet, prose author and feminist. She studied the Polish language at the University of Szczecin, where she received her doctorate and continues to work. Author of short stories, poetry books, and moreover of numerous dissertations and essays, in which she addresses the literature of Poland of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries form a feminist standpoint.

A critic, philologist, essayist, editor and translator. A co-worker of the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the Jagiellonian University. Among others, he translated the following texts into Polish: R. Firbank’s, G. Perec’s, R. Rorty’s and S. Žižk’s. On channel TV Kultura, he is one of the hosts of the programme “Czytelnia”. He cooperates with the Foundation Corporation “Ha! Art”, of which he is vice-president and for which he edits the series “Critical Line”. Editor of the cultural department of “Tygodnik Powszechny”.

Famed Polish translator, essayist and columnist. He completed his studies in Romance philology at the Jagiellonian University. In addition to translating books, he is an author of essays and sketches, which are most frequently published as introductions and afterwords to books.

Journalist. Nominated five Times in the Grand Press competition, he won this award twice. In 2002 he was distinguished for his article “Terror ekologiczny” (Ecological terror), which described the problem of so-called “eco-tribute”, i.e. extortion of money for withdrawal from protests through organizations pretending to be involved in the ecological movement.

Editor of the Book Institute, author of radio programmes broadcast by RMF Classic. He considers Henry David Thoreau to be his spiritual master. Together with Tomasz Pindel he runs a subjective blog about books Poczytane (Books Read) with “reviews (enchantments and attacks), commentaries and news”. As he says, he reads several books at a time, does not use book-marks or notes and does not accept internal literary divisions.

Art historian, specialist in the 20th-century art, expert in the North American Dealer Association in New York. In 1992 she was a curator of the exhibition “Polish Roots, British Land” in City Art Centre in Edinburgh, and from 1996 till 1998 she was a promoter and curator of exhibitions, including the first solo exhibition of Zbigniew Libera in the USA.

Doctor of German language studies, essayist, poet, translator of German poetry and prose (including the works of Hans Magnus Enzenberger, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Michael Krüger, Martin Pollack), and author of children’s books, including “Kajo i Wąż” (Kajo and the Snake). He is an expert on literature at the German Studies Institute of the University of Warsaw. Since 1997 he has been the editor of the monthly magazine “Literatura na Świecie”.

Well-known journalist and author of reportages for Gazeta Wyborcza. In 2009, together with Piotr Głuchowski, he received the Grand Press award for the best press reportage in the most prestigious journalistic competition in Poland. Together they also published the following books: Nie trzeba mnie zabijać (You Don’t Have To Kill Me) (a book-interview with Aleks Kurzem, the former soldier of the battalion of the Latvian SS Legion fighting on the side of German troops with the Bolsheviks for independent Latvia), Odwet. Prawdziwa historia braci Bielskich (The True History of the Bielscy Brothers) and in 2010 Apte. Niedokończona powieść (Apte. The Unfinished Novel).

Polish film operator, director and scriptwriter. He has been fascinated with mountaineering and photography since his youth. He studied drilling at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow and sociology at the Jagiellonian University. However, he eventually abandoned these studies when he passed the entrance examination for studies at the Faculty of Radio and Television of the University of Silesia in Katowice (video engineering). Documentary film became his passion.

Poet, translator, publisher, and one of the most important creators of contemporary Polish verse. He was born in Sankt Valentin (Lower Austria) and completed his studies at the II Liceum Ogólnokształcące in Gorzów Wielkoposki. He worked at the editorial offices of he bi-weekly “Student” around which the Generation of 1968, or New Wave of Polish poetry formed – a poetry movement in Poland in the 1960s and 70s that unmasked the hypocrisy and ineffectiveness of official public life of those times.

Polish journalist, opinion writer, commentator, and editor of a variety of media (including “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Przekrój”, “Życie Warszawy”, TOK FM, TVP2, TV4, and Polsat). He studied philosophy at the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw and at the University of Warsaw. From 1979-89 he was affiliated with the democratic opposition and independent publishing circles. He underwent a novitiate in a Dominican monastery in Poznań.

Polish art historian, painter and writer. Author o the novels: 21st Century (1992, 1995), Grand Hotel Oriental (1997), Encyklopediaerotic (2001), Goldi. Apotheosis of animalness (2004). Among others, she has also published books on art: Veronica and her scarf. History, symbolism and structure of a real painting (1991, 1998), Art mon amour. Sketches on art (2002).

Literary specialist, culture expert, specialist in American literature, culture and history, professor of the Maria Skłodowska-Curie University in Lublin, Head of the American Studies Department. He wrote a number of dissertations, including The Novel as Performance: The Fiction of Ronald Sukenick and Raymond Federman. He is also the author of several books, such as John Cage. Przypadek paradoksalny (John Cage. A Paradoxical Case) (Lublin, 1993) and Gra słów. Muzyka poezji Johna Cage’a (Word-Game. Music of John Cage’s Poetry) (Lublin, 1997).

Philosopher, essayist, translator (of works including those of Adorno, Arendt, Bloom, Scholem, and Wittgenstein) His work is at the boundaries of philosophy, psychoanalysis, Jewish theology, and literary theory (with a special focus on the ideas of Walter Benjamin). He was the recipient of a scholarship from the Stafan Batory Foundation, and served an internship at Oxford University (1997) and at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (2002).

Polish poet, journalist and publicist. President of the Nowoczesna Polska (Modern Poland) Foundation. Before his work in the Foundation, he was a journalist, poet and musician for many years; currently he is an active promoter of modern education and free culture. He makes substantive contributions to all projects of the Foundation, conducts training courses for teachers and delivers numerous speeches and lectures on modern technologies, education and the Internet law.

Outstanding Polish theatre director, stage designer, graphic artist, author of theatrical scenarios, adaptor, translator, lecturer in the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Krakow. Before engaging in theatrical activity, he studied at the Faculty of Physics of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. However, he soon abandoned this field of studies and passed examinations to the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Later he studied film directing in the National Higher School of Film in Łódź and then theatre directing in the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Krakow (1973-1977).

Outstanding translator of belles lettres, literary critic, essayist. She studied French and German philology and philosophy at the University of Warsaw. She translates belles-lettres and philosophic literature from German, including writers such as: Georg Simmel, Patrick Süskind, Theodor W. Adorno, Jürgen Habermas, Hermann Hesse, Frederick Nietzsche. She debuted in 1975 as a translator in the Literatura na Świecie monthly.

Philosopher, feminist. She has been active in liberation, anti-border, ecological, and women’s movements. She is the author of a report on violence against women in families and intimate relationships for the Polish chapter of Amnesty International (2005). She is co-editor (along with Jan Sowa) of the collection “The Captive Mind 2” (2007) and the collection “Futuryzm miast przemysłowych” (The Futurism of Industrial Cities, 2007, with Martin Kaltwasser and Kuba Szreder).

Literary specialist and literary critic. She graduated from master’s studies and then doctoral studies at the Department of Polish Philology of the Jagiellonian University. Since 2005 she has regularly collaborated with the Lampa monthly and the Zadra quarterly. She has also published her texts in Pogranicza and Tygodnik Powszechny.

Poet and writer. He wrote, among others, a poetry book Naprawiacz Ptaków /The Mender of Birds/ (2000) and a libretto to the record KOD. Symfonia ogrodów /KOD. The Symphony of Gardens/ (2004). He published his texts in Polityka, Tygodnik Powszechny, Gazeta Wyborcza, Znak and Przegląd Powszechny. The laureate of the Maciej Szumowski competition for the best reportage/essay (2007).

Literary critic, essayist, columnist, Jagiellonian University professor, Head of the Department of International Polish Studies, Director of Arts Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Lecturer at Harvard and Northwestern Universities between 2002-2004. Author of many books on philosophy and literature, such as: "Anatomia ciekawości" (“The Anatomy of Curiosity”), “Występek. Eseje o pisaniu i czytaniu“ (“Misdeed. Essays on writing and reading”), “Czarny nurt. Gombrowicz, świat, literatura “ (“Black current. Gombrowicz, the world, literature”), “Nieobliczalne” (“Unpredictable”), “Polska literatura nowoczesna. Leśmian, Schulz, Witkacy“ (“Polish modern literature. Leśman, Schulz, Witkacy”).

Polish poet, essayist, translator. He publishes his texts quite rarely, but he prepares every book very carefully. Until now, the following collections of his poems have been published: Podróż (Travel) (1975), Struna (The String) (1979), Płanetnik i śmierć (An Air Ghost and Death) (1981), Anioł z ognia i lodu (An Angel of Fire and Ice) (1986), Światło jednomyślne (The Unanimous Light) (1990), Nawrócenie Maxa Jacoba (The Conversion of Max Jacob) (1994), Poematy biblijne (Bible Poems) (1995), Improwizacje i światy (Improvisations and Worlds) (1997), Zwyczajna, symboliczna, prawdziwa (Ordinary, Symbolic, True) (1998), Powietrze i czerń (The Air and Blackness) (2009).

Graduate of German philology; member of the Question of Boundaries Research Group at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań; scholar of the Foundation of the Polityka Weekly in 2008.

Writer, journalist, publicist. He graduated from Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University. He has published short stories, critical essays and reviews in literary magazines. He was a journalist of the Krakow issue of Gazeta Wyborcza. He is the author of many prize-winning reportages. His prose debut was a collection of short stories Do Amsterdamu (To Amsterdam) (2003), which received the first award in the 3rd edition of the competition “Znak-Proza” organised by the Znak publishing house.

Doctoral student of the Chair of Hebrew Philology of the Jagiellonian University, student of film science at the Jagiellonian University, film and television production at the Łódź Film, Television and Theatre School and Gender Studies of the University of Warsaw. She is also a member of Krytyka Polityczna and participated in the establishment of the Modern Art Section. She has published her texts in Krytyka Polityczna, Ha!art, Zadra, Słowo Żydowskie, Polityka, Film, Res Publika Nowa and Teksty Drugie.

Poet, prose writer, dramatist, literary specialist and translator. In 1938 he started to study Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the war a year later. He fought in the September campaign, then he joined the Union of Armed Struggle. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, he was a prisoner of concentration camps in Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen and Bergen-Belsen. After the war he stayed in Belgium, where he completed Slavic studies, obtained the Belgian nationality and worked as a lecturer of contemporary Polish literature and a teacher of Polish language at Universite Libre in Brussels.

Author, literary critic, essayist, translator, and journalist for the daily newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” (1992-1997), editor-in-chief of the monthly “Midrasz”. He studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw. In 2005 he received the title of Doctor of Humanities in literature for his monograph on James Joyce’s Ulysses, entitled Labirynt i drzewo [A Labyrinth and a Tree], completed under the tutelage of Michał Głowiński.

A mechanic from Krakow who found in 2009 in a heap of paper scraps carried away 10 years ago from the attic of his family home in Wieliczka a pre-war copybook with drawings of Ryszard Apte – a universally talented writer, musician and plastic artist who died during the war at the age of less than 20 years. The copybook contained drawings that were carefully arranged to form a cycle Niepokój (Unrest).

Well-known film critic. She wrote (in co-operation with Wojciech Kodowski and Barbara Kosecka) a lexicon Panorama kina najnowszego 1980-1995 (Panorama of the Latest Cinema 1980-1995) (1997). She is the author of the book Szukając von Triera (Looking for Von Trier), describing the films of the well-known Danish director. She publishes her texts most often in Tygodnik Powszechny. She selects films for the programme of the Krakow Film Festival and sits in various juries.

Literary historian and critic of literature and music, poet, and prose author. He completed his studies in Polish literature at the University of Wrocław, where he works today. He works mainly with contemporary literature, criticism of poetic translations, and music criticism. Member of the Jury of the Wrocław Silesius Poetry Award.

Guitarist, composer, improviser, culture animator and researcher of music folk lore. He started playing the electric guitar at the age of thirteen. Today he is an outstanding personality on the Polish music stage and one of the most interesting and talented young guitarists, whose great passions are solo improvisations and interpretations of ethnic music. He participates in projects such as Shofar and Cukunft, within which he explores traditional klezmer songs.

Critic, historian of art, journalist of the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly – Cultural Department. She specialises in Jewish matters. She also published her articles in Znak and Rzeczpospolita. She co-operates with the Centre for Jewish Culture in Krakow. Among her published books there is Sztetl. Śladami żydowskich miasteczek (Sztetl. In the Wake of Forgotten Jewish Towns), in which she describes forgotten Jewish settlements dispersed across the Kielce & Sandomierz land.

Drama writer, director and theatre critic. As a literary coordinator and director he has cooperated with many theatres in Poland and in the world. He currently directs the Warsaw Laboratorium Dramatu [Drama Lab]. He is the author of dramas, among others: Merlin. Another story (1992), Blacksmith Malambo (1992), A bug’s dream (2001) and Our class (2010).

Polish poet, literary expert, translator of contemporary American, English and Irish poetry (e.g. Frank O'Hara, Charles Reznikoff, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, Robert Lowell, Derek Mahon, Seamus Heaney), author of poems for children, anthologies with translations, editor of the Literatura na Świecie magazine. He studied English philology in Warsaw.

Polish poet, prose writer, essayist, translator (including the works of such authors as Ezra Pound, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Bishop, John Cage, Ronald Firbank, and Harry Mathews), and editor of “Literatura na Świecie”. Graduated with a degree in English language studies from the University of Warsaw. Recipient of the Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna prize for the best poetic debut of 1992, the Kościelski Award (1997), the award of Odra magazine for overall body of work (1998), the Kultura Foundation Prize (1994 and 1999), was nominated to the NIKE awards (1997 and 2008), and for the Gdynia Literary Prize.

Polish sociologist, essayist, and translator. He studied the Polish language, psychology and philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and at the Université de Paris 8 in Saint-Denis. Since 2006 he has held the title of Doctor of sociology, and he works as an adjunct at the Cultural Institute of the Jagiellonian University. He has travelled extensively through places such as India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and both American Continents in connection with the anti-globalisation movement. He is a co-creator of Korporacja Ha!art and of the Spółdzielna Goldex Poldex (with Kuba de Barbaro and Janek Simon).

Polish journalist, reporter, and translator of works into Polish including Gene Wolfe’s “Free Live Free”. She studied English and American literature in Warsaw and in Aix-en-Provence. She worked with the monthly magazine “Kino” and “Gazeta Wyborcza”, where she published two cycles of reportages, written during her long, lonely journeys through Africa (1993-94 and 1995).

Editor, promoter of Polish literature and specialist in the Polish language. She graduated with a degree in Polish language studies from the University of Warsaw. In the 1980s she worked with the underground publication “Wola”. Later she accepted a position with the publishing house “PoMost”, which was coming out from underground. From 1991 to 1997 she was a co-editor of “Ex Libris”, a literary supplement for “Życie Warszawy”.

Prose writer, essayist, author of theatre dramas. He received numerous awards, including the Award of the Kościelscy Foundation (1995), the Nike Literary Award (2005), The Vilenica International Literary Award granted by the Association of Slovenian Writers (2008), the Literary Award Gdynia 2010 in the category of prose. His life-sketch is unconventional – he was dismissed from schools and undertook various jobs.

Translator, editor and teacher of Yiddish. She deals with modern Jewish literature, the problem of modernism, avant garde and feminine literature. The author of the book devoted to aesthetic views of the Polish-Yiddish writer Debora Vogel (2006). The editor of the bilingual anthology Warszawska awangarda jidysz (Warsaw Yiddish Avant-Garde) (2005).

Polish musician, composer, saxophonist, clarinetist, one of the creators of the phenomenon of bands such as Miłość, Łoskot, The Users, NRD, Gdańskie Słoniki, Masło and many others. A graduate of the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Gdynia-Orłowo. In 1987 he began studies at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Fascinated with free jazz music, particularly musicians such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, he started playing the alto saxophone during the first year of studies.

Poet, essayist, journalist, film critic. She studied the Polish language and philosophy at the University of Warsaw. She defended her interdisciplinary Doctoral thesis at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She now gives lectures in Gender Studies at the University of Warsaw and at other institutions.

Translator of French literature. In his early youth, he was a soldier of the Szare Szeregi scout organisation during World War II. He graduated from higher artistic studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (1956). The co-founder and editor of the literary & artistic weekly Zebra (1956-1961). Since 1967 he has been a lecturer of the Academy of Fine Arts. From 1975 till 1987 he was Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Vice-President of this school. A founder member of the International Society of Poets of Central and Eastern Europe “Cap a l’Est” based in Bratislava.

Polish writer of Hungarian origin, journalist. He graduated with a degree in Polish language studies from the University of Warsaw. Together with Paweł Dunin-Wąsowicz he created in 1995 its own dictionary Parnas bis. Literatura polska urodzona po 1960 roku (Polish literature born after 1960). then, again with Paweł Dunin-Wąsowicz and with Jarosław Klejnocki, he published an anthology of new poems Macie swoich poetów (You Have Your Own Poets).