Jarosław Lipszyc

(b. 1975) – a poet, journalist and social activist; a leading ideologue and representative of the neo-linguistic movement in poetry.

Lipszyc has published his poems and articles in Lampa, Ha!art and Gazeta Wyborcza. He was creator and editor of the Meble literary magazine. In 2002–6 he fronted the band Usta, which performed songs with Lipszyc’s lyrics.

Lipszyc is among those authors who do not restrict themselves to writing poems. Each of his fields of activity is a part of the puzzle which, when assembled, might be called the ‘Lipszyc project’. This project has included poetry, club music, Meble, the only journal created by the young writers’ scene, and the neo-linguists, a group who bucked the post-avant-garde tendencies and returned to the language experiments of the 1950s.

Lipszyc has published three books of poetry: ‘bólion w kostce’ (cube of boolion), ‘poczytalnia’ (reading rooms) and ‘Mnemotechniki’ (Mnemotechniques). His poetry uses streams of words, crazed speech, endless monologues connected not by their meaning, but by the sound of the language. The poet tests the limits of what language can do, sometimes using metaphors more operating through words’ associated sounds than their meanings, he uses ambiguous neologisms and numerous enjambments. Lipszyc also treats his works as an effort to tease out the subject. Speech as an individual’s use of language mechanisms ensures the author individuality, even when he submits to language.

Lipszyc’s third book of poetry is a remix of sorts: the poems here have been stitched together from phrases in Wikipedia articles, and the author created several of these pieces live, as a performance.

Jarosław Lipszyc is also a social activist promoting the idea of free access to cultural resources and modern forms of education. He is part of the Internet Society Poland council, and the chair of the Modern Poland Foundation.