The Kosciuszko Foundation Online Programs presents a webinar Huddled in Full Sentences: Poetic Worlds of Ewa Lipska by Jaroslaw Anders. One of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Polish poetry, Ewa Lipska’s writing combines the feeling of personal vulnerability, social corrosion, historical perils, and philosophical uncertainties of modern life. Often associated with the poets of Generation 68, she has created a unique poetic universe of her own. An ironist and skeptic acutely aware of the
PFF Miami presents a movie program celebrating the centennial of the famous Polish sci-fi writer, essayist, philosopher and futurist Stanisław Lem (1921-2006). Perhaps best known worldwide as the author of the 1961 novel, “Solaris,” Stanisław Lem produced dozens upon dozens of novels, stories and essays throughout his nearly 60-year career. Renowned particularly for his work in the realm of science fiction, Lem’s artistic output covers a plethora of genres, encompassing memoirs, accounts of his wartime
This local club is for readers who would like to discuss Polish literature in English. The book for the meeting is Tango by Sławomir Mrożek, first published in 2006. Tango is a play, and arguably, his most famous one. In his trademark absurd style the play deals with the totalitarianism and its brutal ways of forcing conformism; the subject treatment through the fog of absurd makes for a different and interesting perspective. Mrożek (1930-2013) is
The Kosciuszko Foundation online programs presents a meet-the-author talk Barbara & Augustus – A Renaissance Love Story and the Upheaval It Caused by Jeffrey Prince. He will talk about his recently completed manuscript In the Matter of the King’s Marriage, which brings the Golden Age of Poland to life for an American audience. The Renaissance in Poland generated fascinating tales of love and intrigue that have been retold and reinterpreted in each succeeding age—but almost always
The book for the meeting is Głos, a book-long interview with Wojciech Mann by Katarzyna Kubisiowska, published by Znak in 2020. Mann, a radio & TV host, is a household name in Poland and known to everybody due to his very popular music programs in Polish Radio hosted for over fifty years. One topic covered by the book is Mann’s desire to defend his independence and his departure from the public radio forced by the
The Kosciuszko Foundation online programs present a lecture I Got Imprisoned For Rock & Roll: Andrzej Stasiuk and the Literature of Periphery by Dr. Krzysztof Gajewski. Andrzej Stasiuk (b. 1960) is one of the most renowned Polish writers of the turn of 20 and 21 centuries. In his case, biography is intermingled with the artistic creation and almost inseparable from it. He calls himself a child of communism and American pop-culture. Stasiuk’s prose’s point of
The Kosciuszko Foundation online programs present a webinar in the Polish Contemporary Literature series Touched by History: Politics and Poetics of the Polish New Wave Writers in the 1970s. In the late 1960s a new poetic formation emerged in Poland, known as “New Wave” or “Generation 1968”. The notable poets included Adam Zagajewski, Stanislaw Baranczak, Ryszard Krynicki, and Ewa Lipska. In the second lecture devoted to athe “New Wave” poets, Jaroslaw Anders continues to discuss
This local club is for readers who would like to discuss Polish literature in English. The book for the meeting is My First Suicide / Moje pierwsze samobojstwo by Jerzy Pilch, first published in 2006. The book, is a set of ten stories distinct but sometimes connected through common characters from the author’s past. This is a prose highlighting his background, nostalgic of the past and self-reflecting. Jerzy Pilch (1952-2020) is one of the best
The UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee presents a lecture Fr. Jan of the Ladybug: A Story of Fr. Jan Twardowski by Anna Cholewinska, discussing his life and poetry. Jan Twardowski (1915-2006) was a Roman Catholic priest and a poet. Even though he published his first poems in the 1930s, it was not until the 1990s when he became popular and widely recognized. The opening line from one of his poems “Śpieszmy się kochać ludzi –
The Kosciuszko Foundation presents a webinar “Henryk Sienkiewicz in the Digital Age” by Bartlomiej Szleszyński. Dr. Szleszyński is a professor at the Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, with interest in digital platforms; he is a deputy director of the Digital Humanities Centre. Does Henryk Sienkiewicz, a man from the age of steam, have his place in the digital age culture? Is this writer, Nobel prizer, whose novels were once absolute bestsellers still
The Polish book for the meeting is Kasacja by Remigiusz Mróz. It’s the first book from the legal thriller series featuring Joanna Chyłka, Esq. The book has been praised by fellow crime novel writers and critics both for a gripping tale and for being on par with Grisham’s legal thrillers. Mróz is a very popular crime novel writer, with several series under his belt. These include a series with detective Wiktor Foster, another one with
This local club is for readers who would like to discuss Polish literature in English. The book for the meeting is Eden by Stanisław Lem, first published in 1958. This classic sci-fiction book, similar in a way but less known than Solaris, regards exploration of an alien planet of Eden. Its main theme is an inherent difficulty in ability to understand an alien world and a civilization that seems to have very little in common
The book for the meeting is Matka Polka by Anne Applebaum and Paweł Potoroczyn. It is an extensive interview that Applebaum agreed to do with Potoroczyn, a friend she shares many common interests with. Applebaum is a Pulitzer winning author (for Gulag: a History), who published several books, essays and articles about history and politics of East European countries. The book is the first one where she discusses her life, decisions, political interests and her
UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee invites you to a lecture Interhuman History: How Magdalena Grzebałkowska Rewrites the Aftermath of World War II in “Poland 1945: War and Peace” by Prof. Beth Holmgren. Magdalena Grzebałkowska, 48, is an award winning writer and a reporter for Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The book was a finalist to the 2016 Nike Polish literary award and won the Gazeta Wyborcza Reader’s Award. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes &
The Kosciuszko Foundation online programs present a webinar in the Polish Contemporary Literature series My Country’s Other Names: Poland’s New Wave Poets of the 1970s. The event includes talk by Jarosław Anders followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Małgorzata Pośpiech. In the late 1960s a new poetic formation emerged in Poland, known as “New Wave” or “Generation 1968”. The talk will cover works by Adam Zagajewski, Stanislaw Baranczak, Ryszard Krynicki, and Ewa Lipska. Jaroslaw Anders
Austin Polish Society invites you to a meeting in Polish with Jarosław Abramow-Newerly, an author, playwright, composer, songwriter and one of a co-founders of the famous STS student cabaret. He moved to Canada in the 1980s and then shared his time between Warsaw and Toronto. His notable books include “Lwy z mojego podwórka” about his boyhood during the WWII and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and “Nawiało nam burzę” about fates of extended Polish-Ukrainian family from
This local club is for readers who would like to discuss Polish literature in English. The book for the meeting is The Doll / Lalka by Bolesław Prus, first published in 1877-79. This work is regarded as the greatest Polish realistic novel, painting a great panorama of the Polish society of the time. Some, including Nobel prize winner Czesław Miłosz regarded it as the best Polish novel. Ostensibly a love story of a self-made rich
The book for the meeting is “Baśń o wężowym sercu albo wtóre słowo o Jakóbie Szeli” by Radek Rak. Mr. Rak, 33 and by profession a veterinarian practicing in Kraków, started by publishing fantasy short stories and novels. His previous novel, Puste niebo won the Juliusz Zuławski Literature Award. Baśń … brought him the top honor of the Polish literary scene: the 2020 Nike Award. The book has been praised for creating a magic space
Seattle-based monthly reading group Readings from the Heart of Europe will feature Magdalena Tulli’s novel Dreams and Stones / Sny i kamienie at its November meeting. All readers with an interest in the author or book are welcome to follow or participate in the discussion. Magdalena Tulli, 65, made her name in Poland in 2011 with her frank autobiography Włoskie szpilki / Italian High Heels; that book departed in style from her earlier, more metaphysical
The book for the meeting is “27 śmierci Toby’ego Obeda” by Joanna Gierak-Onoszko. Ms. Gierak-Onoszko is a Polish journalist who lived in Canada with her family for four years. Her first book is a result of her shock when she learned how the supposedly benevolent Canadian state was treating the First Nation peoples. Tony Obed is just one man from generations of Canadian First Nations whose life was broken by being removed from his family