Adam Zagajewski

Adam Zagajewski
Adam Zagajewski in 2014
Born	(1945-06-12) 12 June 1945 Lviv
Occupation	poet, essayist, translator
Nationality	Polish
Notable awards	Princess of Asturias Award (2017) Griffin Poetry Prize (2016) Heinrich Mann Prize (2015) Neustadt International Prize for Literature (2004) Vilenica Prize (1996) Kościelski Award (1975)

Adam Zagajewski (born 21 June 1945 in Lwów) is a Polish poet, novelist, translator and essayist. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award and the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature.

Biography

Adam Zagajewski was born in 1945 in Lwów (since January 1, 1946 Lvov, Ukrainian SSR). His father was Tadeusz Zagajewski and his mother was Ludwika Zagajewska, née Turska. The Zagajewski family was expelled from Lwów by the Ukrainians to central Poland the same year. They moved to the city of Gliwice where he graduated from Andrzej Strug V High School (V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Andrzeja Struga). Subsequently, he studied psychology and philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He later taught philosophy at the AGH University of Science and Technology. In 1967, he made his poetic debut with Music, a poem published in Życie Literackie magazine. He published his works as well as reviews in such magazines as Odra (1969–1976) and Twórczość (1969, 1971–1973). During this time, he became involved in the New Wave (Nowa fala) literary movement also known as the Generation of '68'. The aim of the group was "standing up against the falsifications of reality and the appropriation of language by communist ideology and propaganda". After signing the Letter of 59 his works were banned by communist authorities in Poland. In 1978, he was one of the founders and first lecturers of the Scientific Training Association. In 1982, he emigrated to Paris, but in 2002 he returned to Poland together with his wife Maja Wodecka, and resides in Kraków. He is a member of the Polish Writers' Association.

His literary works have received international recognition and have been translated into many languages. Joachim T. Baer, a reviewer from World Literature Today pointed out that the recurring themes in Zagajewski's poetry include "the night, dreams, history and time, infinity and eternity, silence and death." Colm Tóibín notes that in his best poems "he has succeeded in making the space of the imagination connect with experience; things seen and heard and remembered in all their limits and sorrow and relished joy have the same power for him as things conjured." American poet Robert Pinsky observes that Zagajewski's poems are "about the presence of the past in ordinary life: history not as a chronicle of the dead … but as an immense, sometimes subtle force inhering in what people see and feel every day — and in the ways we see and feel.” His poem "Try To Praise The Mutilated World", printed in The New Yorker, became famous after the 11 September attacks.

Zagajewski used to teach poetry workshops as a visiting lecturer at the School of Literature and Arts at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków as well as a creative writing course at the University of Houston in the United States. He is currently a faculty member at the University of Chicago and a member of its Committee on Social Thought. He teaches two classes, one of which is on fellow Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz.

Awards

He was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit, and twice received the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 1992, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He won the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and is the second Polish writer to be awarded, after Czeslaw Milosz. In 2015 he received the Heinrich Mann Prize. In May 2016 he was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize of the University of Tübingen. In the same year he received the Order of Legion d'Honneur.

Bibliography

Adam Zagajewski and Wisława Szymborska in 2005

Collections

Poetry

• Zagajewski, Adam (1972). Komunikat. Kraków. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sklepy miesne. Kraków, 1975.
• List. Oda do wielosci. Paris, 1983.
• Jechac do Lwowa. London, 1985.
• Plótno. Paris, 1990.
• Ziemia ognista. Poznan, 1994.
• Trzej aniolowie. Kraków, 1998.
• Pragnienie. Kraków, 1999.
• Powrót. Kraków, 2003.
• Anteny. Kraków, 2005.
• Unseen Hand (Niewidzialna reka). Kraków, 2009.
• Wiersze wybrane. Kraków, 2010.

Prose

• Cieplo, zimno. Warszawa, 1975.
• Sluch absolutny. Kraków, 1979.
• Cienka kreska. Kraków, 1983.

Essays

• Swiat nieprzedstawiony. Kraków, 1974.
• Drugi oddech. Kraków, 1978.
• Solidarnosc i samotnosc. "Zeszyty literackie", 1986.
• Dwa miasta. Paryz-Kraków, 1991.
• Another Beauty (W cudzym pieknie). Poznan, 1998.
• Obrona zarliwosci. Kraków, 2002.
• Poeta rozmawia z filozofem. Warszawa, 2007.

Books in English translation

Poetry

• Tremor Translator Renata Gorczynski, Collins Harvill, 1987
• Canvas Translators Renata Gorczynski, Benjamin Ivry, C. K. Williams, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994, ISBN 9780374523985
• Mysticism for Beginners: Poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 15 April 1999. ISBN 978-0-374-52687-0.
• Without End: New and Selected Poems. Clare Cavanagh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 18 March 2003. ISBN 978-0-374-52861-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
• Selected Poems, Translator Clare Cavanagh, Faber & Faber, 2004, ISBN 9780571224258
• Eternal Enemies: Poems. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 28 October 2014. ISBN 978-1-4668-8424-3.
• Unseen Hand: Poems (2011)

Essays

• Solidarity, Solitude, Ecco Press, 1990, ISBN 9780880011860
• Two Cities: On Exile, History, and the Imagination. University of Georgia Press. 1995. ISBN 978-0-8203-2409-8.
• Another Beauty. University of Georgia Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0-8203-2410-4.
• A Defense of Ardor: Essays. translator Clair Cavanagh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 28 October 2014. ISBN 978-1-4668-8423-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

Edited

• Polish Writers on Writing (Trinity University Press, 2007)

List of poems

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected
I look at a photograph	2011	Zagajewski, Adam (Spring 2011). "I look at a photograph". Tin House. 47. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)	Zagajewski, Adam (2013). Henderson, Bill (ed.). The Pushcart Prize XXXVII : best of the small presses 2013. Pushcart Press. pp. 547–548. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)

Critical studies and reviews

• Borkowska, Ewa (2001). "'In the beauty created by others' : Polish post-war emigration poetry : Adam Zagajewski". The writing of exile. Edited and introduced by Wojciech Kalaga and Tadeusz Rachwal. Katowice, Poland: Slask. pp. 51–64. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)
• Carpenter, Bogdana. “A Tribute to Adam Zagajewski.” World Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma. 2005 May-Aug; 79 (2): 14-15.
• Cavanagh, Clare. “Lyric and Public: The Case of Adam Zagajewski.” World Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma, 2005 May-Aug; 79 (2): 16-19.
• Kay, Magdalena. “Place and Imagination in the Poetry of Adam Zagajewski.” World Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma, 2005 May-Aug; 79 (2): 20-22.
• Kay, Magdalena. Knowing One's Place in Contemporary Irish and Polish Poetry: Zagajewski, Mahon, Heaney, Hartwig. New York, NY: Continuum; 2012.
• Krivak, Andrew. "The Language of Redemption: The Catholic Poets Adam Zagajewski, Marie Ponsot & Lawrence Joseph." Commonweal, 2003 May 9; 130 (9): 12-16.
• Shallcross, Bozena. Through the Poet's Eye: The Travels of Zagajewski, Herbert, and Brodsky. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP; 2002.

External links

• Profile and poems by Adam Zagajewski at PoetryFoundation.org
• Poems by Adam Zagajewski at Samizdat
• Profile and poems by Adam Zagjewski at Poets.org
• Adam Zagajewski at culture.pl
• Profile at Poetry International
• Interview with Adam Zagagjewski in Barcelona Metropolis Magazine, Autumn, 2009
• Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 1 May 2002. (Audio, 70 mins)