Instytut Książki

About Us

Books from Poland is an English-language website for everyone interested in Polish literature: translating it into other languages, publishing and popularising it abroad, and – perhaps most of all – reading it.

Since its inception in 2004, the Book Institute – of which Books from Poland is a part – has supported the promotion of Polish literature abroad. We do this through programmes for translators, publishers and writers. We aim to show that Polish literature is interesting, accessible and original by promoting texts of the highest quality[wm1.1]. Let’s see what’s what.[

We Support

The ©POLAND Translation Programme is meant for foreign publishers. It provides funding for the majority of translation and rights purchase costs, and in the case of illustrated books may also cover part of the printing and illustration costs. It has already supported the publication of over 4,000 translations of Polish books.

However, before many works of Polish literature can make their way abroad, they need to be promoted. The Sample Translations ©POLAND Programme enables translators to translate excerpts of Polish books and present them to foreign publishers. The Publishing Proposals programme can also be of use here; it helps rights managers prepare their publishing presentations in foreign languages. Finally, the Non Stop – Polish Literature Abroad programme makes it possible to organise foreign events featuring Polish authors, and is open to writers, illustrators and translators as well as institutions wishing to host them.

Translators' Collegium

This is a residency programme, with accommoations in Cracow and Warsaw, that gives translators the opportunity to work on translations, meet writers, publishers and experts, visit libraries, and network with people in the literary field.

Translators' Collegium 2026

Jooyoung Jung © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Daniel Bednarz

Laura Rescio © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Daniel Bednarz

Andrea Caccherelli © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Daniel Bednarz

Julia Aagenæs Więdłocha © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Melaike Hüseyin © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj Przekaż swoją opinię na temat programu BizChat

Charles Kraszewski © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Alžběta Knappová © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Daniel Bednarz

Jiří Trávníček © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Anna Marcinowska © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Anna Ciesielska Ribard © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Eliza Marciniak © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Lorenzo Pompeo © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Viktória Kellermann © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Vassil Velchev © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Zvonko Dimoski © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Tomas Håkanson © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Vyturys Jarutis © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Alexander Lindskog © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Ketavan Kantaria © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Francesco Annicchiarico © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Lydia Waleryszak © Instytut Książki 2026, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Translators' Collegium 2025

Ursula Phillips © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Andriy Pavlyshyn © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Aein Ghobadi © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Caroline Raszka-Dewez © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Pau Freixa Terradas © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Adrian Cvitanović © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Marta Éles © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Rina Bodankin © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Dawid Mobolaji © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Hanna Jankuta © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj Przekaż swoją opinię na temat programu BizChat

Elżbieta Bortkiewicz © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Joanna Orzechowska © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Katherina Kokinova © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Hatif Janabi © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Margot Carlier © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Jorgen Monrad © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Judyta Preis © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Filip Dimevski © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Agnes Monod‑Gayraud © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Constantin Geambasu © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Yinhui Mao (Zofia) © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Michael Zgodzay © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Hakan Koçyiğit © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Renate Schmidgall © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Yu Lin © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Emilio Nuić © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Simone Falk © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Agnès Wisniewski © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Halina Boniszewska © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Dalibor Blažina © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Young Hwa Kim © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Piotr Kilanowski © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Frank Garrett © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

© Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

Maryla Laurent © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Daniel Bednarz

Jurek Hirschberg © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Daniel Bednarz

Nasim Łuczaj © Instytut Książki 2025, phot. Daniel Bednarz Przekaż swoją opinię na temat programu BizChat

We Promote

Of course, our activity is not limited to grant programmes. Every year, we also organise the Polish stands at the major international book fairs (Frankfurt, Bologna, London), where we support Polish publishers in selling translation rights. And we organise information stands at other selected fairs worldwide, including Taipei, Leipzig, Prague, Turin and Shanghai. Fairs are the best opportunity for us not only to learn about current trends in other countries, but to present important[wm2.1] new releases from Poland. This we do primarily through our catalogues New Books from Poland, published annually, and Polish Books for Children & Young Adults. We also publish occasional catalogues devoted to specific genres, such as graphic novels, speculative fiction and other areas in which Polish authors can boast of a long tradition of excellence.[

We also invite publishers to Poland for our Seminars for Publishers, which provide opportunities to meet Polish authors, publishers and agents, and often result in book publications and long-term friendships. In addition to the Translators’ Collegium, we organise the World Congress of Polish Literary Translators every four years, a great celebration of translators of Polish literature now in its sixth iteration. We also keep in touch with translators through our New Books from Poland newsletter; sent out every quarter, it features short write-ups of new book releases.

© Instytut Książki: The Seminar for Publishers 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

© Instytut Książki: The Seminar for Publishers 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

© Instytut Książki: The Seminar for Publishers 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

© Instytut Książki: The Seminar for Publishers 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

© Instytut Książki: The Seminar for Publishers 2025, phot. Edyta Dufaj

In Numbers

2004

The Establishment of the Book Institute

4,000+

Translations supported

1200+

Samples financed

11

Grants programmes

We Award

We also oversee scholarships and prizes, the most important of which is undoubtedly the Transatlantyk Award, presented yearly to an eminent ambassador of Polish literature abroad.

Conferred jointly with the Polish Institute in London and the Polish Institute in New York, Found in Translation is an award for the best translation of Polish literature into English published in the previous year. The Anders Bodegård Scholarship is granted to translators specialising in the translation of Polish literature into Swedish or French. The Albrecht Lempp Scholarship, founded in collaboration with the Foundation for Polish–German Cooperation and Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, is awarded to writers from Poland and Germany and to translators of Polish and German literature.

Transatlantyk Award

Yearly for an eminent ambassador of Polish literature abroad

Found in Translation

Yearly for the best translation of Polish literature into English

Anders Bodegård Scholarship

Yearly for a translator of Polish literature into Swedish or French

Albrecht Lempp Scholarship

Yearly for a writer/translator of Polish or German literature

Xavier Farré (Spain) – a translator into Catalan and Spanish, a tireless ambassador for Polish literature throughout the Spanish-speaking world; the winner of Transatlantyk Award

Abel Murcia (Spain) – a promoter of Polish culture, translator and author of dictionaries. His translations include the works of Szymborska, Różewicz, Kapuściński, Lipska, Tokarczuk, Lem and Krynicki; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2024

Vera Verdiani (Italy) – a translator of Polish literature into Italian who has rendered Gombrowicz, Kapuściński, Lem and Herling-Grudziński; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2024

Hatif Janabi (Iraq) – a translator of Polish literature into Arabic, with an impressive number of translations of the classics of Polish literature; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2023

Silvano De Fanti (Italy) – a translator of Polish literature into Italian and an indomitable promoter of Polish language and culture in Italy; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2022

Tokimasa Sekiguchi (Japan) – a promoter of Polish culture in Japan who has translated such masterpieces as Jan Kochanowski’s Laments, Adam Mickiewicz’s Ballads and Romances and Vilnius Forefathers and Bolesław Prus’s The Doll; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2021

Ewa Thompson (Poland) – a promoter of Polish culture in the USA, a retired Slavic Studies professor at Rice University, where she brought up generations of Slavic scholars; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2020

Hendrik Lindepuu (Estonia) – he has over fifty books to his credit, as well as seventy plays; since 2003, he has been publishing Polish literature via Hendrik Lindepuu Kirjastus; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2019

Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Great Britain) – a translator of Polish literature into English and a great promoter of Polish culture; she has produced over a hundred translations; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2018

Lajos Pálfalvi (Hungary) – a literary historian and critic, with nearly sixty book publications to his credit – translations of Polish literature, essays, and reportage; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2017

Constantin Geambaşu (Romania) – a translator and Polish scholar, who has translated around fifty Polish books for some of Romania’s most prestigious publishing houses; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2016

Laurence Dyèvre (France) – a translator with around sixty translations to her credit, mainly Polish contemporary prose, spanning the whole of the twentieth century; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2015

Bill Johnston (USA) – a scholar and advocate of Polish contemporary literature, as well as the classics of nineteenth-century poetry; a force behind the success of Myśliwski’s novels in America; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2014

Karol Lesman (Holland) – a Witkacy expert who has translated the canon of Polish prose into Dutch; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2013

Yi Lijun (China) – a literary scholar, and a translator of titles including Forefathers’ Eve, The Trilogy and The Captive Mind; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2012

Pietro Marchesani (Italy) – a great promoter of the work of Wisława Szymborska in Italy; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2010.

Biserka Rajčić (Serbia) – a translator of Polish poets, philosophers, literary theorists, and a scholar of the Polish avant-garde; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2009

Xenia Staroshyelska (Russia) – a translator of Polish prose into Russian since the 1960s; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2008

Albrecht Lempp (Germany) – one of the architects of Poland’s success as a guest of honour at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, and a translator of Głowacki and Pilch, among others; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2007

Anders Bodegård (Sweden) – a translator and promoter of Polish literature in Sweden, well known in Poland; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2006

Henryk Bereska (Germany) – a Silesian translator of Polish literature into German; the winner of Transatlantyk Award 2005

Published with Our Support[

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With the financial support of the ©Poland Translation Programme, over 4,000 translations of Polish books have been published abroad in past two decades!

The©PolandTranslationProgramme

The©PolandTranslationProgramme

The©PolandTranslationProgramme

The©PolandTranslationProgramme

The©PolandTranslationProgramme

The©PolandTranslationProgramme

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Book Institute Poland

www.bookinstitute.pl

The Book Institute, which publishes Books from Poland, is a state cultural institution.

We were established by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage to promote Polish literature abroad and popularise books and reading domestically.

We work for the promotion and spread of literacy in Poland, and for this we need libraries. The Library Infrastructure Priority, whose aim is to transform district libraries into modern centres with access to knowledge and culture, is carried out through the National Reading Development Programme.

We also promote reading: the ‘Small Book – Great Person’ campaign promotes the advantages that come from families reading together right from the first months of a child’s life. Launched in 2017, today it is one of the largest bookstart programmes in Europe. More recently, we’ve added on another project: BookStadium. Inspired by football, this programme promotes readership among children and young people who love sports.

For over a decade, we have been administrating grant programmes of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in literature, while since April 2010 we have been the publisher of some of the oldest and most recognised Polish culture periodicals, such as Nowe Książki, Twórczość, Literatura na Świecie, Dialog and Odra.

That's just a part of our activities. More about the Book Institute can be found on our website

The Team

Meet full team
Meet full team