Elżbieta Łapczyńska

(b. 1987) – a prose writer, playwright and scriptwriter.

She is a philosopher by education, and works as a copywriter. She has been tied to Nowa Huta since she was born. Her work, focused on such issues as transhumanism, physicality and biopolitics, often uses conventions of horror and magical realism.

She made her debut in 2020 with ‘Bestiariusz nowohucki’ (A Nowa Huta Bestiary), a collection of tales that won the Conrad Award and was nominated for several other important literary prizes. The book is a tale of the early days of the steel mill (then named after Lenin), but it does not confine itself to a realistic depiction of these important historical events. Using her recognisable Surrealist and metaphor-laden language, Łapczyńska speaks of the Nowa Huta mill as if it were a live creature, around which she tells the stories of its workers – traumatised, grappling with poverty and misogyny, haunted by the spectres of the past.

In her next volume of prose, ‘Mowa chleba’ (The Speech of Bread), Łapczyńska continues exploring themes of violence, devoting plenty of space to detailed descriptions of her protagonists’ physiologies. The Speech of Bread is set in a Romanian orphanage and, as in Bestiary, the political backdrop plays an important role – in this case, the totalitarian rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu and the anti-abortion laws he introduced.

Elżbieta Łapczyńska’s work is not confined to prose; she also has theatre and directing experience. She wrote a drama, The Rose West Band, nominated for the Gdynia Dramaturgy Award 2020, ‘Statek Utopia’ (The Utopia Ship), for which she took first prize at the International Szymon Szurmiej Competition for Contemporary Dramas on Jewish Themes, and the text for the comic book ‘Nielęk’ (Non-Anxiety), illustrated by Wojtek ‘Wu’ Zieliński.

Despite her modest output, Łapczyńska has received many awards and nominations. For A Nowa Huta Bestiary she took the Conrad Award and was nominated for the Nike Literary Award, Polityka Passport, Gdynia Literary Award and City of Warsaw Literary Award. For The Speech of Bread she received the Gdynia Literary Award.