The Polish Poets at Words Out Loud
On Zoom
Date of Live Meeting: Wed 19th Oct 2022
Featured Readers: The Polish Poets + Open-Mic on Zoom and in Chichester
Oct 2022
On 19th October we hosted Special Guest Poets from Poland.
We were delighted to present poems by a number of well-known and respected poets of Polish origin, writing in or translated into English, some of whom are based in Poland and some in England and the United States.
Read about the contributors to this event below.
This continues the somewhat cosmopolitan nature of our Zoom events and allows us once again to share our creative work with writers from across the world!
Polish/English translator Anna Widlarz has collaborated with Words Out Loud to organise and host this special event and will be introducing the Polish Poets and translating some of the poems on the evening.
Anna Widlarz
English to Polish and Polish to English translator, holding an MA Diploma in English Studies (Jagiellonian University, Kraków) and specialising in poetry translation. A poet herself. She has co-authored and co-hosted a radio programme on the latest Polish poetry and co-hosted two other bilingual (Polish-English) radio programmes about music and poetry. She also worked as an interpreter and journalist writing a column about poetry translation. https://www.facebook.com/Przekladpoezji
Featured Readers
Jan Strządała
Maria Jastrzębska
Jolanta Trela-Ptaszyńska
Bożena Boba-Dyga
Olga Szwajgier
Marcin Czerwiński
Jan Strządała
Sunny night (Warsaw1983), A though galaxy (Warsaw 1988), A needle whisper in an open vein (Katowice 1993), A leaned sky (Warsaw 1994), Absent Night (Krakow 1997), Naked Dress (Krakow 2001), A secret (Krakow 2003), Light and Body (Krakow 2004), Night Every Night (Krakow 2005), Young Words (Krakow2007), Delicate Place (e-book, Gliwice 2009), Poems I (Katowice 2012); Poems II (Katowice2012), Memory of the body plays with my heart (Gliwice 2014), Beads (Gliwice 2015), I will rise you from the cry (Gliwice 2016), Memory of the body plays with my heart / La memoria del corpo giocca con il cuore mio (Katowice 2018, Polish-Italian edition, translated by D. Tomczyk and V. Montuschi),I will rise you from the cry/ Ti sollevero dal pianto (Gliwice 2019, Polish-Italian edition, translated by D. Tomczyk and V. Montuschi), The fraction (Gliwice 2019).
Author of the novel A dark-eyed (published under the pseudonym Dawid Glen, Gliwice 2010, publication e-bookowo.pl 2010). A dark-eyed (2nd edition of Gliwice 2012).
Poems have been translated into Russian, German, Czech, Serbian, English, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew and Esperanto.
https://janstrzadala.wixsite.com/light-and-body
Jan Strządała – Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia
Maria Jastrzębska
Poet, editor and translator Maria Jastrzębska’s fifth collection Small Odysseys is out in October from Waterloo Press. The Cedars of Walpole Park, her selected poems, were translated into Polish (Stowarzyszenie Żywych Poetów 2015) and she translated The Great Plan B by Justyna Bargielska (Smokestack 2017) – so there is a lot of movement between her languages. She was the co-editor of Queer in Brighton (New Writing South, 2015).
www.mariajastrzebska.wordpress.com
Maria’s Forthcoming Collection Small Odysseys, published by Waterloo Press
https://waterloopress.co.uk/books/small-odysseys-2022
Jolanta Trela-Ptaszyńska
Poet, essayist, script writer, TV and film director. Graduate of Philological Department of Uniwersytet Śląski in Katowice. In 1985 she received a master’s degree in film studies and in 2014 a doctorate degree in film arts. University lecturer at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School of Uniwersytet Śląski.
At the age of 22 she made her debut as a poet publishing her poems in Twórczość magazine. She publishes poems and essays in various literary magazines. She published two collections of poetry: Brulo (MAW, Warszawa, 1988) and 21 (TZK, Katowice, 1992). Since 1992 a member of Stowarzyszenie Polskich Twórców Telewizyjnych (Polish TV Artists Association). In 1990-1999 worked full-time as a director for Katowice branch of Polish TV. She directed several artistic TV programs for Channel 2 of Polish Televion based on the world classic of poetry and prose.
For her television debut cycle Poezja Nowej Fali (New Wave Poetry) she was honoured with the Award of the Polish TV Chairman for Television Creative Achievements. In 1996 she was awarded with so called Paszport Polityki (Polityka’s Passport) for her artistic production De Aegypto based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead. This production received many prestigious awards at various film festivals. In 2005 she organized three-day international conference: Dispute over Kant. Kant – Philosopher- Citizen – Human.
Her TV theatre debut production Umarli ze Spoon River (The Dead of Spoon River) based on the Spoon River Anthology of Edgar Lee Masters, was one of the eight productions nominated for BANFF World Television Festival 2007. Trela-Ptaszyńska is a vice-chairman of the Katowice Section of Polish Writers’ Association. She created so called Akcja Literacka (Literary Action) promoting literature. She is the chairman of the Program Board of Teatr Rozrywki in Chorzów. In 2011 she was awarded with the Silver Honorary Badge for Merits for Śląskie Voivodeship.
Bożena Boba-Dyga
Polish writer and artist, art conservator, and cultural network facilitator. Author of ten volumes of poetry. Published in anthologies and periodicals in Poland, the USA, Israel, Germany, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Translated into Bengali, English, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Lithuanian, German, Slovak and Ukrainian. Recording artist featuring songs and contemporary music. Founder and president of the Art Forum Foundation and Director of the Krakow Accordion Festival. Awarded the Golden Cross of Merit by the President of the Republic of Poland, and the Honorary Badge of Merit for Polish Culture by the Minister of Culture and Art. Memberships include The Polish Writers’ Association, The Association of Polish Artists and Designers, and the Music Center. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Scholarships include the European Tempus Program and German DAAD.
Olga Szwajgier
Olga Szwajgier teaches at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Kraków (PWST). She is the only person in the world who has extended her voice range from four to six octaves and can sing near the limits of human hearing. In 1970, she graduated from the State Higher School of Music in Kraków. In addition to composing her own music she writes lyrics and directs her concerts (in 2002, she first performed her piece Julius at Carnegie Hall). Since 1976 Olga Szwajgier has performed at all the major festivals of contemporary music in Poland, Italy, France, Greece, Germany, Mexico, Austria, Sweden, South Korea, China and Israel. She sings classical, popular and experimental music. In 1981, she became a member of Muzyka Centrum Art Society. In 1989, she was awarded a Cultural Doctorate in Philosophy by the World University Roundtable (Benson, Arizona). In 1991, she was the only artist from the Central and Eastern Europe to perform at the special gala to commemorate the Century of Carnegie Hall in New York. In the same year, the International Biographical Centre in Cambridge named her Woman of the Year 1991/92, and in 1992 the American Biographical Institute declared her Woman of the Year 1992 and Most Admired Woman of the Decade. In 1993, the London Institute for Applied Research awarded her a Doctor of Music, and the Australian Institute for Co-ordinated Research conferred on her the Honorary Doctor of Musicology degree. In 2000, the International Music Congress in Stuttgart hosted her as Voice Phenomenon. In 2005, in Berlin, as part of the celebrations of the Year of Albert Einstein, she performed in The Speed of Light, an opera composed by Christian Steinhäuser and Mathias Baumhof, inspired by Einstein’s theory of relativity and her extreme vocal range.
More information: http://www.olgaszwajgier.com
Marcin Czerwiński
Literary scholar, author of books on literature “Sorrow of the maze” and “Machine negative”, as well as a book of poetry entitled “Esperanto Miniaturists”, for which he received the Polish poetry award (nagroda im. Iłłakowiczówny, 2021). He lives in Wrocław.
More information: www.plazaciemnia.pl
