Agata Tuszyńska

(1957) – writer, poet, reporter, historian of literature and theatre.

A theatre studies graduate, Agata Tuszyńska has been writing poetry and reportage since she was at university. She made her debut with a theatre review in “Tygodnik Kulturalny” in 1977, and as a poet a year later in “Nowy Wyraz”. Her first work of reportage was also published in 1978. She has published reviews, articles and interviews with stage artists in “Teatr”, “Życie Literackie” and “Nowe Książki”, as well as underground magazines such as “Silva Rerum”. Between 1987 and 1992, she worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Literary Research; she was later employed at the Centre for Journalism in Warsaw and at the University of Warsaw, where she lectured on the art of reportage and literary journalism.

Tuszyńska’s first non-poetry book, a biography of the actress Maria Wisnowska, provides a clear insight into her interest in the issue of memory. She is sensitive not only to the fading of memories, but also to memories that contain holes, gaps, blank spots, or that are charged with the burden of disgrace. In every form of her writing (poetry, non-fiction, memoirs, scientific publications and monographs), Tuszyńska expands the current understanding of the factors that influence our ways of remembering and evaluating human behaviour, marginalising significant achievements, shaming and belittling. The entirety of her creative work is about saving the world from the specific extermination of amnesia.

Tuszyńska looks at the heroes, and especially the heroines, of her works from a perspective as free as possible from prejudice, but attentively and with keen interest. She tries to be fair to the characters to whom she dedicates her books, be they works of reportage or biographies. The result is not hagiography, but empathetic portrayal. Tuszyńska is a pioneer not only of the feminist “rewriting of history”, but also of highlighting important connections between small, private histories and “big”, universal history. Her two most personal works of prose are “Rodzinna historia lęku” (Family History of Fear: A Memoir, 2005) and “Ćwiczenia z utraty” (Exercises in Loss, 2007). The first is a story about discovering the fate of her own Polish and Jewish ancestors. The second is a testimony of love and companionship, both in illness and after the death of Tuszyńska’s husband Henryk Dasko. Both books are also a history of the 20th century in Central Europe, shadowed by the Holocaust.

Tuszyńska tries to recover the memory of important female figures in Polish culture, which is also visible in her books that are not devoted exclusively to women. An example is “Tyrmandowie. Romans amerykański” (The Tyrmands: An American Romance), which sheds light on the figure of Mary Ellen Fox, a woman not widely known to the public, who married Leopold Tyrmand after he emigrated to the US. In addition to the Wisnowska biography, Tuszyńska wrote a number of other books about women, including Irena Krzywicka (“Długie życie gorszycielki”; The Long Life of a Scandalous Woman, 1999), Wiera Gran (“Oskarżona Wiera Gran”; Vera Gran: The Accused, 2010) and Józefina Szelińska (“Narzeczona Schulza. Apokryf”; The Fiancée of Bruno Schulz, 2015). Each of these figures can be called an icon of modern femininity: creative, breaking social taboos, independent, and paying a high price for choosing freedom in a patriarchal society.

Tuszyńska has received scholarships from many foreign institutions and universities, including the Historical and Literary Society in Paris, the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem, and the Kościuszko Foundation in New York. She used the scholarships to collect materials for her reportage and to travel, including following the trails of Polish exiles to Moscow and Siberia.

She received the K. Pruszyński Polish PEN Club Award in 1993 for her book “Kilka portretów z Polską w tle” (Portraits with Poland in the Background). For “Rodzinna historia lęku”, she was nominated for the French literary award Prix Médicis in 2005 and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award in 2016. For “Narzeczona Schulza”, she was nominated for the French awards Prix Médicis and Prix Femina in 2015, and shortlisted for the Gryfia National Literary Award for Female Authors (2016). She was awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis (2015) and the French Order of Arts and Letters (2022).