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This anthology breaks new ground in the English speaking world by publishing translations of poems by Polish writers all under the age of forty five. It reflects the range of different writing practices that have flourished in various parts of Poland over the last fifteen years, and tries to acheive a balance between them. Practically all the work in this selection was written in the post-Communist period but in cultural historical terms it reflects the evolution of a sensibility that began to emerge in the mid 1980's when Polish poetry was being realigned contentiously with newly visible traditions of European and American writing.
The Polish Complex takes place on Christmas Eve, from early morning until late in the evening, as a line of people (including the narrator, whose name is Konwicki) stand and wait in front of a jewelry store in Warsaw. Through the narrator we are told of what happens among those standing in line outside this store, what happens as the narrator's mind thinks and rants about the current state of Poland, and what happens as he imagines the failed Polish rebellion of 1863. The novel's form allows Konwicki (both character and author) to roam around and through Poland's past and present, and to range freely through whatever comes to his attention. By turns comic, lyrical, despairing, and liberating, The Polish Complex stands as one of the most important novels to have come out of Poland since World War II.
The recent work from a celebrated contemporary Polish poet.
The food of Poland has long been overlooked, but the time is right for a reinvention. In Polska, young food writer Zuza Zak presents her contemporary take on Polish cuisine, with recipes for snacks and party foods, soups, preserves, breads, fish, meat and poultry, salads and veg, and cakes and desserts. She places Polish food within the context of the country’s history and geography, and tracks how it has developed and adapted to Poland’s ever-changing political and economic situation. With recipes including Tuna cured in bisongrass vodka, Courgette islands with dill flowers, and Mini doughnuts with rose filling, and lavish photography from the acclaimed Laura Edwards, Polska is a breath of fresh air.
Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 Finalist The coming of age story of an award-winning translator, Homesick is about learning to love language in its many forms, healing through words and the promises and perils of empathy and sisterhood. Sisters Amy and Zoe grow up in Oklahoma where they are homeschooled for an unexpected reason: Zoe suffers from debilitating and mysterious seizures, spending her childhood in hospitals as she undergoes surgeries. Meanwhile, Amy flourishes intellectually, showing an innate ability to glean a world beyond the troubles in her home life, exploring that world through languages first. Amy's first love appears in the form of her Russian tutor Sasha, but when she enters university at the age of 15 her life changes drastically and with tragic results. "Croft moves quickly between powerful scenes that made me think about my own sisters. I love how the language displays a child's consciousness. A haunting accomplishment." Kali Fajardo-Anstine
A rising star in Polish letters explores faith, eros, death and the making of poems in these deft, personal musings. Hailed in Poland as "the hope of Polish poetry" and the inheritor of its metaphysical tradition, Dabrowski offers these "posts" from city streets and trains, his bedroom and Skype, a hospital and his own notebook, employing colloquial language to confront weighty subjects: "And right here /poetry appears, and forces a stag to bolt / in front of the hood of your car." Tadeusz Dabrowski is the author of six books and recipient of numerous awards, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. Antonia Lloyd-Jones's brilliant translations have twice won her the Found in Translation Award.
At once kind and hilarious, this compilation of the Nobel Prize-winning poet’s advice to writers is illustrated with her own marvelous collages In this witty “how-to” guide, Wislawa Szymborska has nothing but sympathy for the labors of would-be writers generally: “I myself started out with rotten poetry and stories,” she confesses in this collection of pieces culled from the advice she gave—anonymously—for many years in the well-known Polish journal Literary Life. She returns time and again to the mundane business of writing poetry properly, that is to say, painstakingly and sparingly. “I sigh to be a poet,” Miss A. P. from Bialogard exclaims. “I groan to be an editor,” Szymborska responds. Szymborska stubbornly insists on poetry’s “prosaic side”: “Let’s take the wings off and try writing on foot, shall we?” This delightful compilation, translated by the peerless Clare Cavanagh, will delight readers and writers alike. Perhaps you could learn to love in prose.
"This expanded edition of Postwar Polish Poetry (which was originally published in 1965) presents 125 poems by 25 poets, including Czeslaw Milosz and other Polish poets living outside Poland. The stress of the anthology is on poetry written after 1956, the year when the lifting of censorship and the berakdown of doctrines provoked and explosion of new schools and talents. The victory of Solidarity in August 1980 once again opened new vistas for a short time; the coup of December closed that chapter. It is too early yet to predict the impact these events will have on the future of Polish poetry." From Amazon.
Celebrated mock heroic poem now available in English translation.
**Selected for Dua Lipa's Service95 Book Club 2024** LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2021 A Guardian Book of the Year 'The highest talent at work' Sebastian Barry 'Beautiful ... A masterpiece' Attitude Poland, 1980. Shy, anxious Ludwik has been sent along with the rest of his university class to an agricultural camp. Here he meets Janusz - and together they spend a dreamlike summer falling in love. But with summer over, the two are sent back to Warsaw. Confronted by the scrutiny, intolerance and corruption of life under the Party, Ludwik and Janusz must decide how they will survive; and in their different choices, find themselves torn apart. 'An affecting and unusual romance' Observer 'A new classic' Evening Standard 'A beautiful novel, and at its heart an amazing love story' BBC Radio 4 Open Book, Editor's Pick 'Jedrowski is an authentic new international star' Edmund White 'A remarkable, beautiful tale, utterly new and entirely credible ... This book radiates sensuality, humour, and human truths' Literary Review