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Simic, Lundquist, Sośnicki, Nowakowska, Krynicki – we disclose the names of further guests of the 4th Miłosz Festival
Charles Simic, Marie Lundquist (for the first time in Poland), Dariusz Sośnicki, Klara Nowakowska and Ryszard Krynicki – the winner of this year’s Zbigniew Herbert Award – are further guests of the quickly approaching 4th Miłosz Festival.
Charles Simic’s poems are said to resemble Chinese riddles. Simic is an American poet with Serbian roots. He was born in Belgrade and lived there until he was 16. He learned English already after emigrating to the USA; after a few years, he started writing poems in it. Simic refers to his emigration with slight irony: ‘Hitler and Stalin were my travel agency.’ Poetry is not the only domain of his activity. He writes about jazz, art and philosophy. In addition, he publishes articles about Polish poetry in The New York Review of Books. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, which he received for the volume The World Doesn’t End: Prose Poems.
On the occasion of the poet’s arrival at the festival, The Znak publishing house issued a collection of Simic’s poems. Blues o śnieżnym poranku [Blues On A Snowy Morning] contains translations of Simic’s poems by Krystyna Dąbrowska, Jerzy Jarniewicz, Magda Heydel and Agata Hołobut.
Marie Lundquist, a poetess and essayist born in Sweden, will arrive in Poland for the first time. After studies she worked as a librarian for several years. She published her first poetry volume in 1992. Thanks to a photography course completed in Denmark, she established contacts with the local literary circles, which became fascinated with her poems. Today she is considered to be one of the interesting and unique Swedish poets. Her style is characterised by simplicity, sparingness and, at the same time, unusual lyricism. Her artistic output encompasses nine poetry books and numerous essays.
Polish readers can become familiar with a selection of Lunquist’s poems via the book Pisane na kamieniach (Written on Stones), which has been prepared specially for the festival by Zeszyty Literackie.
Dariusz Sośnicki is a recognised Polish poet, editor, essayist and translator. A graduate of philosophy at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, he has published his own poetry books and translations, including W.H. Auden’s poems in W podziękowaniu za siedlisko (In Token of Gratitude for the Seat) (2013). His poems and sketches on literature have been published in many magazines and anthologies, also in translations. Separate collections of his poems were issued in Romania and the USA. He was an editor of the artzin Już jest jutro (it’s already tomorrow) and the literary biweekly Nowy Nurt. For eight years, he was the managing editor of the Polish prose department in the W.A.B. Publishing House. His most recent book – the poetry volume Spóźniony owoc radiofonizacji (The Delayed Fruit of Radio Broadcast Development) – was published last year.
Another poet who will appear in Krakow in May is Warsaw-born Klara Nowakowska. She won the main award in the Jacek Bierezin Competition and the WARTO award of Gazeta Wyborcza. In 2014, she was nominated for the Silesius Poetry Award in the Book of the Year category. She has published, among others, collections of poems: Zrosty (1999), Wodne wiersze (Water Poems) (2002), Ulica Słowiańska (Słowiańska Street) (2012) and Niska rozdzielczość (Low Resolution) (2013).
An indispensable guest of the festival is Ryszard Krynicki – a member of the Honorary Committee of the Miłosz Festival and the winner of many awards, including the Award of the Kościelski Foundation, the Friedrich Gundolf Award and most recently the Zbigniew Herbert Award. His debut poetry volume Pęd pogoni, pęd ucieczki (Speed of Race, Speed of Escape) was published in the memorable year 1968. In the 1970s he was an editor of the Student magazine, which was the focal point for poets associated with the “Generation of 68” movement (called also the New Wave). Krynicki is primarily a poet, but also an outstanding translator of poetry, including authors such as Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs, Bertolt Brecht, Hans Magnus Enzesberg or Reiner Kunze. He also belongs to an elite group of independent Polish publishers. Together with Krystyna Krynicka, he established the A5 publishing house in 1989 in Poznań; since 1998 it has functioned in Krakow, where Krynicki has worked and lived till today. His commonly known fascination with haiku poetry is reflected in the book Haiku. Haiku mistrzów (Haiku. Haiku of Masters), which was published last year.
In order to learn more, visit: www.miloszfestival.pl.
