Aid fund of the Wisława Szymborska Foundation

The 31st of March 2014 is the deadline for applications for aid granted to writers and translators who are in difficult financial situations. Writers and translators who have financial problems can apply for financial support under the Aid Fund established by the Wislawa Szymborska Foundation. The aid has been granted since 2013 , twice a year – in spring and autumn, by the Aid Committee consisting of: Teresa Walas – Chairperson, Ireneusz Kania, Piotr Matywiecki, Bożena Ptak, Iwona Smolka, Jan Strządała and Beata Szymańska.

The aid is granted upon the application of the writer or translator of literature, the Polish Writers’ Union, Pen-Club, the Book Institute, other associations of writers and organisations acting in support of the writers’ or translators’ community. Relevant documents justifying the need for aid should be attached to the application.

For detailed information about aid see the Foundation’s website: www.szymborska.org.pl/fundusz-pomocy.html

In 2013, aid was granted under the spring and the autumn tranches.

Philosopher, priest, promoter of highlanders’ culture. The author of now iconic Historia filozofii po góralsku (History of Philosophy, Highlander-Style). He was awarded the Order of the White Eagle. We invite you to read a new literary trail following Józef Tischner’s footsteps.

First I am a human, then a philosopher, then there is a long “nothing at all”, and finally, I am a priest. – Rev. Józef Tischner used to say about himself. As we take the virtual Tischner Trail, guided by Joanna Podsadecka, we will familiarise ourselves with every face of the philosopher. We will visit places which are generally associated with his life and work, as well as those less known, often quite surprising.

The journey starts in Krakow: we will learn why Józef Tischner studied law for one year, what words he used when addressing Lech Wałęsa at Wawel Cathedral and what subject he lectured at the State Drama School in Krakow. We will visit Nowy Targ and Łopuszna, climb Mt Turbacz and take a look at Tetmajer’s Manor House, and on the way we will find Stary Sącz and Tylmanowa, where once little Józio was taking his first steps.

Philosophy and Literature. The Krakow Lectures is a project aimed to create a space for meetings for enthusiasts of philosophy and literature, offering the opportunity for reflection on defining and expressing mutual relations between philosophy and literature.

The first series of four lectures, Literature and Fiction, in 2014 will be given by Dariusz Czaja PhD, anthropologist and researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the Jagiellonian University. The invited lecturer is the author and editor of many books, e.g. Lekcja ciemności (Lesson of Darkness) and Gdzieś dalej, gdzie indziej (Somewhere Else, Somewhere Further).

We invite you to the inaugural lecture, Art as mystagogy, to be held at the Cinema Hall of the Malopolska Garden of Arts in Krakow, on 13 March 2014, at 7.00 pm. Admission is free.

For more information go to www.wyklady-krakowskie.pl.

You are invited to the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow (18 Dajwór Street) to a meeting with Anka Grupińska, the author of 12 opowieści żydowskich, to be held on 13 March, at 6.00 pm. Admission is free!

The heroes of the twelve stories have many things in common: they spent their childhood and youth in inter-war Poland, they survived the Holocaust and stayed in Poland after the war. But they are different in many respects. They originate from different Jewish families – some well-off and some poor, some traditional and some assimilated, religious, members of Zionist or Bund movements. They have different experiences and world views. Several decades having passed, they talk about their childhood, their parents and grandparents, their everyday life and holidays, their schools, fellow students and teachers. They talk about the Shoah and the sometimes difficult life in the Polish People’s Republic. Thanks to Anka Grupińska’s book that world of the past is revived in their stories – warm, moving and sometimes tragic.

Places, leaving, fleeing, returning; holidays, tastes, mixed, juxtaposed; Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Germans and Russians in the rapids of the river of history. Twelve Jewish stories. Each of them is a frenzied race through the memories of those who have survived, a race through the 20^th century. Intimate stories, painful, stripped of any attempts at aestetisation. Anka Grupińska was here just in time to write them down. And a true book was created.

Mirosław Bałka

12 Jewish stories allow us to plunge into a world which we wouldn’t have a chance to experience otherwise. Words are supplemented by photos from private collections of the people featured in the book. Family portraits, excursions, holidays, weddings: life.

Patrycja Bukalska, tygodnik.onet.pl

On 12 March (Wednesday) at 7.00 pm, a special Spanish-language show of the film Widok Krakowa (View of Krakow) directed by Magdalena Piekorz will be given at the Casa del Lector Auditorium in Madrid. The screening will inaugurate the series Poets and Their Cities. The poet Adam Zagainewski will be the guest of honour. The poet’s discussion with the Spanish literary critic Mercedes Monmany will be about the perception of Zagajewski’s works in Spain. The event is organised by the Polish Institute in Madrid. We are proud to remind you that the Polish episode of the series City(W)rites – Widok Krakowa – has been produced by the Krakow Festival Office, an was supported by the Krakow Film Commission.

Watching Magdalena Piekorz’s Widok Krakowa, viewers will be taken on a film trip to Krakow and Malopolska, guided by the Krakow-based poet Adam Zagajewski. He will show them his literary Krakow, his masters, his favourite spots and fellow writers. He will also talk about his creative path and about Polish literature at large. The great artists and writers associated with Krakow – Stanisław Wyspiański, Tadeusz Kantor, Stanisław Lem, Sławomir Mrożek, Wisława Szymborska, Czesław Miłosz – are also referred to in the film.

The film of Magda Piekorz depicts the literary face of Krakow which last year was honoured with the prestigious title of UNESCO City of Literature, joining the elite group of six earlier cities (Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin, Reykjavik and Norwich).

The project was born in co-operation with the series’ international co-ordinator Owen W. Thompson (producer of Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo del Toro), as well as the Spanish production agencies Uhura Films and Flamenco Films which are responsible for the film’s international distribution and promotion.

Widok Krakowa is part of the international literary and film project City (W)rites, presenting literary capitals of Europe through meetings with writers associated with each city. Adam Zagajewski assumed the role of ambassador of Krakow and Malopolska. Magdalena Piekorz reveals that the poet will show ”his own” Krakow: his masters, favourite spots and his friends – writers. There will also be reminiscences of other prominent writers associated with the city who have passed way — Wisława Szymborska and Czesław Miłosz.

The Krakow Festival Office is the producer of the Polish episode of the series City(W)rites – Widok Krakowa of Magdalena Piekorz. The Krakow Film Commission also supported the production. Telewizja Polska SA and the Book Institute have been project partners. The production has also received funding from the Reading Promotion programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The funding is operated by the Book Institute.

Adam Zagajewski is ranked among the best recognised and world-renowned contemporary Polish poets; he is also among the most translated Polish poets and essayists. He is the winner of many prestigious international awards, including the Prix de la Liberté (1987), Vilenica Prize (1996), Nikolaus Lenau Preis (2000), Tomas Tranströmer Award (2000) and Neustadt Prize (2004). In 2002 he became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Arts and Literature. In December last year he was conferred the doctorate honoris causa at the Jagiellonian University.

Magdalena Piekorz – graduated from the J. Kieślowski Radio and TV Faculty of the Silesian University in Katowice. She is a script writer, film director and stage director. She has a PhD in cinematic art. She has made seven documentary films. Her first film – Dziewczyny z Szymanowa (Girls from Szymanów) – won her the Bronze Lajkonik at the 31st International and National Documentary and Short Film Festival in Krakow. For her Franciszkański spontan (Franciscan Spontainety) she received the Honorary Award of the Jury on the 2^nd Review of Documentary Forms in Szczecin, and for her Przybysze (Newcomers) — the Grand Prix of Euroshorts’99. All films have been broadcasted on TV 1 under the series Czas na dokument (Time for Document). For a few years she has been making films abroad. First Znaleźć, zobaczyć, pochować (To Find, to Look, to Bury) – a film about the women of Bosnia who are waiting to hear the news about their family members after the war in former Yugoslavia, then Piemonte – a story of a small town in Istria, with only one resident, and most recently Chicago – a documentary series for TVN (co-director, 25 episodes.) She became famous for her feature film Pręgi (The Welts), to Wojciech Kuczok’s script. In 2011, she directed the concert Panna Madonna Legenda Tych Lat (A Virgin, Madonna, the Legend of Those Days ) — the tribute to the singer Ewa Demarczyk during the Opole Festival.
Media patron: lubimyczytac.pl.

The Polish episode of the series City(W)rites has been produced under the Reading Małopolska Project. It consists of a series of activities through which Malopolska, and its capital, Krakow intend to communicate their literary heritage and involve themselves in building a network of regions that are creative in the area of literature. The Project is supported by funding of the Malopolska regional Operational Programme 2007-2013.

Pic. Michał Sosna

On 25 February, at 7:00 pm at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow (18 Dajwór Street) a meeting with Jennifer Teege, the author of the book Amon. Mój dziadek by mnie zastrzelił (Amon. My grandfather would have shot me), will be held. The meeting will be moderated by Dr Edyta Gawron, Admission is free. Don’t miss out!

About the book: Amon. Mój dziadek by mnie zastrzelił:

One event shook her entire life: Jennifer Teege, learned who she really was when she was 38. By chance she found a book about her mother and her grandfather Amon Göth at a library. Millions of people know the story of Göth. In Spielberg’s Schindler’s List he is a brutal commandant of a concentration camp, a drinking buddy and rival of Oskar Schindler who rescued Jews. Göth was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people and was hanged in 1946. His partner, Jennifer Teege’s beloved grandmother, Ruth Irene, committed suicide in 1983. Jennifer is the daughter of a German woman and a Nigerian. She was raised in a foster family. She studied in Israel. When she discovered the truth, she had to face the family story she could never escape. How can she look her Jewish friends in the eyes? What should she tell her own children? Jennifer Teege decides to challenge the past. She meets with her mother whom she has nor met for years. Together with the journalist Nikola Sellmair she investigates the history of her family, visits places connected with the past, goes to Poland and then back to Israel. Step by step, horrified by the dark history of her family, she builds the story of her own liberation.

Jennifer Teege (born 1970) – is the daughter of a German woman and a Nigerian. When she was four weeks old, she was sent to an orphanage. At the age of seven she was adopted. For four years she lived and studied in Israel. Since 1999 she has worked as a copywriter in the advertising industry. She lives in Hamburg, Germany.

The Polish edition of the book Amon. Mój dziadek by mnie zastrzelił was published by Prószyński Media. The book will be on sale at bookshops from 25 February 2014.

For more information about the meeting, please go to: www.facebook.com.

On Sunday, as the spring sun brightened the Krakow sky, numerous book lovers who wanted to give their books a second life and to explore book collections of others drew to the Tourist Service Centre. Around 200 people swapped their books on that occasion!
At 3.00 pm sharp, book enthusiasts, loaded down with book packages, entered the Tourist Service Centre. Thanks to them such treasures as Patrick Süskind’s Pachnidło (Perfume), Balzac’s Ojciec Goriot (Father Goriot), Wojciech Mann’s Kroniki wariata z kraju i ze świata (Chronicles of a Madman, the Country and around the World), Jerzy Kosiński’s Malowany ptak (Painted Bird), Zośka Papużanka’s Szopka (Puppet Show), William Styron’s The Suicide Run or Kazimierz Wyka’s Życie na niby (A Make-Belief Life) gained a new life.
Thank you very much for your participation in the campaign. We hope that every next such event will gather more participants. Don’t miss out the meeting at the French Institute (15 Stolarska Street) on 16 March, under the Francophonie Month. NOTE: During that event we will only swap books of French-speaking countries in Polish and French!

At the second meeting of the Reading series, Jerzy Franczak and Marta Syrwid will present their newest short stories. Wit Szostak will share excerpts from his still unpublished novel. As the icing on the cake, Kinga Raab will share with us some pieces of prose by the Russian blogger Danilo Bluz. The Reading Series will be moderated by the journalist Michał Sowiński. The Krakow Festival Office is the project partner. See you next week (Tuesday, 25 February) at 5.00 pm. Address: Cafe Szafe, 10 Felicjanek Street.

The Reading Series is a project aimed to present literature and bring writers together. The Krakow Reading Series takes the form of regular meetings at which writers, essayists and translators read excerpts of their works. You will have the opportunity to listen to works on which writers are still working, the most recent works of renowned authors and debut authors who will be selected by the project curators.

The initiative has been launched by the community of Ha!art editors, activists supporting the publication, foundation, magazine and portal. The next meeting of the Series will be in March. This time the Reading Series will be compiled by the journalist Aleksandra Małecka. Don’t miss out!

It’s no news that Krakow and its nooks and crannies evoke a special magic and a unique atmosphere. This is why writers, not only Polish but also foreign, often set the scene for their characters in Krakow’s houses, leading them through the streets of Krakow, offering them a treat of Krakow’s squares and plazas. We recommend the new virtual trail that is entirely devoted to literary heroes who are somehow connected with Krakow to all those in search of the secrets of literature.

The trail was conceived by Ewa Zamorska-Przyłuska, who will guide us along the paths of Zofia Zawistowska, the protagonist of Sophie’s Choice. The author will tell us about Krak and his conversations with the Dragon at the Dragon’s Den from Porwanie Baltazara Gąbki (Abduction of Balthazar Sponge). She will also familiarize us with Roma Ligocka’s Krakow and show us where heroes of Czesław Miłosz’s Zniewolony umysł (The Captive Mind) hid.

Every Monday a new literary trail will be published on www.readingmalopolska.pl, each on a different theme. The newest such trail is The Trail of Literary Heroes. Next week The Tischner Trail will premiere, followed by The Malopolska Avant-Garde Trail. Each virtual trail leads to different sites and deals with different themes, always related to literature. Follow us on the website!