Joanna Mueller

(b. 1979) – a poet, essayist, literary scholar and editor.

Even before her book debut, Mueller joined Marcin Cecka, Maria Cyranowicz, Michał Kasprzak and Jarosław Lipszyc in releasing the ‘Manifest neolingwistyczny’ (Neolinguistic Manifesto), which articulated, among other things, the creative postulates for a poem’s material and visual attributes. Although the paths of the manifesto signees soon parted, this special form of ‘Warsaw neolinguism’, playing with phraseology, remained a characteristic part of Mueller’s style for years to come.

Her first book of poetry, ‘Somnambóle fantomowe’ (Phantom Somnambóle, 2003) was praised by the literary critics for joining a multilayered poetics focused on language games with the individual experience. In ‘Zagniazdowniki/Gniazdowniki’ (Precocials/Altricials, 2007), Mueller widens the scope of her poetry to include the topi of motherhood. Feminist diction entered her 2015 collection, intima thule, much more boldly; the poet grappled with domestic violence and gender discrimination. She also explored these subjects in later books, including a ‘poemics’ created with Joanna Łańcucka, ‘Waruj’ (Brew). In 2025, she put out the ‘Zmieszane’ (Muddled) collection, Mueller’s variations on the theme of a collected poems. Apart from poetry, she wrote children’s literature: ‘Piraci dobrej roboty i strofy o innych stworach’ (Good Work Pirates and Stanzas about Other Creatures, 2017) and the papertale ‘Niewidka i Zobaczysko’ (Sightless and Viewsome, 2023). Mueller has also written essay collections: ‘Stratygrafie’ (Stratography, 2010) and ‘Powlekać rosnące’ (Putting off Growing, 2013), in which she reflects on literary and thematic traditions important to her work.

Joanna Mueller is also active as an editor and literary animator: she was one creator of the feminist art group Wspólny Pokój (Shared Room), supporting debut poets through workshop projects organised by Biuro Literackie, and co-edited anthologies of women’s poetry (‘Solistki’ [Soloists] and Warkoczami’ [Braids]).

Mueller has received a range of nominations for her work: for the Gdynia Literary Award in 2007, the City of Warsaw Literary Award in 2015, and the Wisława Szymborska Award in 2019. She was three times nominated for the Wrocław Silesius Poetry Award in the book of the year category (for intima thule, Brew! and Hista & her sista), and in 2023 she received the Silesius for lifetime achievement. In 2011, for Wylinki and her essays, Stratographies, she took the Four Columns Literary Award.

Her poems have been released in many foreign anthologies of Polish poetry and translated into English, Czech, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Russian, Serb, Ukrainian and Hungarian.