Izabela Morska

(b. 1961, until 2013 she used the surname Filipiak) – a writer, columnist, literary scholar and poet.

A lecturer at the English and American Studies Institute at the University of Gdańsk, she is also a member of such academic organisations and societies as: Utopian Studies Society-Europe (since 2017), International Border Studies Center (since 2021), European Society for the Study of English (since 2022) and Association of Writers and Writing Programs AWP (since 2025).

She made her debut in 1992 with a short-story collection called ‘Śmierć i spirala’ (Death and the Spiral). This book made reference to her years as an immigrant to the United States. For her, New York in the early 1990s was a place where new ideas were being formed, above all the spiritualism of New Age and feminist theology.

A breakthrough in her work came with ‘Absolutna amnezja’ (Absolute Amnesia, 1995), generally considered Izabela Filipiak (Morska)’s most outstanding effort to date. Taking the example of a young girl growing up in the 1970s in a typical Polish family of the time, she showed how an individual is formatted and objectified by society and culture.

Two years later, she published a collection of eleven short stories, ‘Niebieska menażeria’ (The Blue Menagerie), which pointed to a clear autobiographical turn in her work. From then on, this subject became a signature of Izabela Filipiak (Morska)’s writing, both in her original works and her instructive pieces like ‘Twórcze pisanie dla młodych panien’ (Creative Writing for Young Girls), endorsing a modern concept of writing as an activity focused on self-awareness and self-exploration. This was the spirit in which her first book of poetry was written, Madame Intuita (2002).

This author’s writing is bold, deeply intuitive, and also critical toward the prevailing cultural narratives. Her most recent novel, ‘Trojka’ (Three, 2024), is made up of three autonomous parts joined by the shared theme of women’s dilemmas, biases, intolerance and oppression.

This writer has also made her name as a talented and witty columnist. Her best pieces are collected in ‘Kultura obrażonych’ (Culture of the Offended, 2003), a pointed look at Polish intolerance, conservative thinking and customs that reject any kind of difference.

She has published in such periodicals as: bruLion, Odra, Ośka, Ex Libris, San Francisco Chronicle, Czas Kultury, Kwartalnik Artystyczny and Gazeta Wyborcza, and has been a regular columnist in Activist, Pani, Wysokie Obcasy and Marie Claire.

In 2018, Izabela Morska was honoured with the Julian Tuwim Literary Award for lifetime achievement. For ‘Znikanie’ (Disappearance), she was nominated for the Nike Literary Award (2019) and the Pomeranian Wiatr od Morza Literary Award (2020). She has taken a Visegrad Fellowship (Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest, 2021), and a grant from the Viennese Central European University (Open Society Archives, Budapest, 2022), as well as a City of Gdańsk Cultural Scholarship (2023).

For more on the work and accomplishments of Izabela Morska, see here.