Let’s read poetry with the Miłosz Festival

It’s time for the great festival premiere! In cooperation with publishing houses: a5, Instytut Mikołowski , Lokator Media, Wydawnictwo Literackie and Znak , Polish translations of works by five our guests from abroad: Linn Hansén, Petr Hruška, Antjie Krog, Robert Pinsky and Joachim Sartorius will be released. The books will be on sale in Bona Bookshop (11 Kanonicza Street).

Linn Hansénwas for many years the curator of the Poetry Festival in Gothenburg. She actively supports asylum seekers. She builds her poetry from various statements, questions and slogans, which seem to be unrelated, but as a whole describe a gap between the individual and the system. The Polish translation of her volume by Justyna Czechowska, titled Przejdź do historii is about to be published by Lokator Media.

Selected poems by another prominent guest of the Festival – Petr Hruška, a Czech poet, scriptwriter and literary critic, have been prepared by Instytut Mikołowski. Hruška is a co-organiser of literary soirées, festivals and exhibitions in Ostrava. He is one of the best known Czech poets after 1989. He is said to be a poet of unrest and hidden threate of the everyday life. His volume under the Polish title DARMATY was translated by Franciszek Nastulczyk.

Antjie Krog is a poet, a writer, a journalist and an academic of Afrikaner descent. She authored many volumes of poetry, prose and drama. Her first poem was published in a school newsletter and came as a shock for the conservative Afrikaner environment as a strong voice against the Apartheid politics. A volume of her poetry under the Polish title Ciało ograbione translated by Jerzy Koch will be published by Wydawnictwo Literackie.

We also look forward to seeing the Polish premiere publication of poetry by Robert Pinsky – an American poet, essayist, literary critic and translator, whose Polish translations by Stanisław Barańczak, Mieczysław Godyń, Renata Gorczyńska, Agata Hołobut, Justyn Hunia and Adam Szostkiewicz are released by SIW ZNAK in the volume entitled Terrarium dla snów.

The German-born poet, lawyer and diplomat – Joachim Sartorius – is also a guest of the Festival. He held numerous posts connected with international cultural policy – he was the Secretary General at the Goethe Institute and the artistic director of Berlin Festival. His poems from the volume under the Polish title Zegar szronu have been translated by Ryszard Krynicki and published by Wydawnictwo a5.

Traditionally, we have prepared for all festival guests our Polish-English:

ALMANACH –a guide to events connected with this special celebration of poetry. In addition to programme details, you will also find here information about the works by our guests from abroad and excerpts from their poetry.