Grzegorz Leszczyński

(b. 1956) – a literary theorist specialising in literature for children and young adults.

He has written many books on the subject and has prepared numerous collections of fairy tales and poems for young readers.

Leszczyński was head of the Institute for Popular, Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the University of Warsaw, and for many years was the director of the Polonicum Center for the Polish Language and Polish Culture for Foreigners. He also directs post-diploma studies, ‘Literature and books for children and young adults and the modern challenges’.

He began working at the University of Warsaw in 1979. In 1989 he defended his PhD, published in an abridged version as ‘Młodopolska lekcja fantazji. O przełomie antypozytywistycznym w literaturze fantastycznej dla dzieci i młodzieży’ (The Young Poland Fantasy Lesson: Of the Anti-Positivist Breakthrough in Fantasy Literature for Children and Young Adults, 1990), and in 2006 he received his habilitation degree for his thesis, ‘Kulturowy obraz dziecka i dzieciństwa w literaturze drugiej połowy XIX i w XX c.’ (The Cultural Image of the Child and Childhood in the Literature of the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries). In 2018, he was made a professor.

In 1993, Leszczyński belonged to the founding committee of the Friends of Books for Young People Society – the Polish Section of IBBY; he has also been the chair (until 1994) and vice-chair (in 1995–98) of this association.

In 2014, he was the head of the Presidential Couple Award Chapter for outstanding achievement for children and young adults, and in 2002–5, head of the Art for Young People Polish Presidential Award Chapter. In 1994–2000 he worked for Polish Television as vice-director of the Children’s Editorial Staff.

In 2013, Grzegorz Leszczyński was nominated for the Ikara Award in the Popularisation category. He also received a Pegazika statuette in the Friend of Books category, awarded during the Poznań Fair Meetings – Books for Children, Young Adults and Parents. He is an honorary member of the Polish Section of IBBY and the Polish Society of Book Publishers.