Andrzej Muszyński

(b. 1984) – a prose writer, author of reportage, traveller and poet.

Muszyński graduated in Law from the Jagiellonian University, from the Krakow Scriptwriter’s School and the Polish School of Reportage at the Institute of Reportage in Warsaw.

As a writer, he made his debut in 2013 with a short-story collection describing life in the Polish countryside, ‘Miedza’ (Boundary Line). This book is filled with nostalgia for a vanishing rural way of life, focused on the natural cycle, for the vanishing speech habits and customs. Boundary Line is also the story of grappling with the countryside as a place of origin, which you might escape, but never forget.

Muszyński’s first novel, Podkrzywdzie, is the story of a man who, recording his memories of a childhood in the country, tries to understand the mystery of his deceased grandfather, and shows how experiences from that time and place shaped his sensibility. In the novels ‘Fajrant’ (Punching Out) and ‘Bez. Ballada o Joannie i Władku z jurajskiej doliny’ (Lilac: The Ballad of Joanna and Władek of Jurassic Valley), Muszyński described, respectively, the lives of the thirty-year-old precariat and two lovers facing the fact that they cannot have children. In the unclassifiable ‘Dom ojców’ (House of Fathers), in turn, Muszyński offers a poetic description of the Krakow-Częstochowa Upland, blending autobiography, non-fiction and historical prose, all in a poetic language.

Andrzej Muszyński is also the author of reportage. A book of 2013 covering his travels through Asia, Latin America and Africa tries to determine what is meant by the titular ‘Południe’ (South), and where its geographical, political, economic and historical boundaries lie. Published in 2015, ‘Cyklon’ (Cyclone) looks at Myanmar – its Saffron Revolution and birth of democracy. His travel writings have been published in the foreign and domestic press, including National Geographic Polska, and his poems in Akcent and Topos.

Muszyński has had a scholarship from the Ryszard Kapuściński Herodotus Foundation and won the competition for the best short story at the International Short Story Festival in Wrocław 2012. He has been nominated for the Beata Pawlak Award, the Gdynia Literary Award, and the Polityka Passport. In 2023, House of Fathers also was nominated for the Nike Literary Award and the Angelus Central European Literary Award. He has also been singled out as a traveller – he received a ‘Kolos’ in the ‘feat of the year’ category for crossing the Minkébé National Park in Gabon and the Andrzej Zawada Award for his expedition to the north of Myanmar.