Anna Piwkowska

(b. 1963) – a poet, prose writer, essayist, lyricist and teacher; she graduated in Polish literature from the University of Warsaw.

She made her debut in 1989 with ‘Szkicownik’ (Sketchbook). As Piotr Matywiecki put it: ‘In all of Piwkowska’s poems […] we are struck by the very careful, regular versification and artful use of rhyme’. Bronisław Maj, in turn, pointed to Stanisław Barańczak, Wisława Szymborska and Joseph Brodsky as the chief patrons of her work. With a thorough knowledge of European culture, the poet takes such female figures as Arachne, Iphigenia, Ismene and Phaedra, presenting them in a new light, subtly cutting the distance between them and the contemporary reader. Women are always at the heart of her poetry – mothers, daughters and grandmothers, tied with an inextricable bond, passing down experience and family histories. Piwkowska’s works are marked by a delicate tone of nostalgia, tangible in the human relationships she describes, for in these poems people meet only for a fleeting moment, and ultimately remain alone. Vibrant colours prevail (red, white and blue), a lust for life and the horror of death co-exist. For Piwkowska, an important role is played by primordial cultures, myths and folk tales, the endlessly repeating human stories and rites of passage.

She has also published biographical essays on Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva and Beata Obertyńska. She also published novels: inspired by the life and work of Georg Trakl, ‘Ślad łyżwy’ (Trace of a Skate, sometimes called prose poetry) and a book for young adults, Franciszka, from the perspective of a teenage girl, a story of artistically talented siblings and forbidden feelings. She also wrote the words of the Prologue for Maciej Kamieński’s eighteenth-century opera ‘Nędza uszczęśliwiona’ (Joyful Misery), directed by Krzysztof Kolberger.

Piwkowska has been awarded many times. She has received the Georg Trakl Literary Award (Youth Promotional Prize, 1995), a Kościelski Foundation distinction for Po (2002), an IBBY Literary Award for her novel Franciszka (2014) and on two occasions, the City of Warsaw Literary Award – for ‘Farbiarka’ (The Dyer) and Franciszka (2009 and 2015). She has also won scholarships from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and the Polish Library in Paris.