Joanna Olech

(b. 1955) – a graphic artist, author of books for children and young adults, literary critic, and literary and illustration competition juror.

She graduated from the Faculty of Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw; she defended her diploma at the Book Design Studio headed by Professor Janusz Stanny.

She made her debut as a columnist in 1978 in Kurier Polski with an article on interior furnishing; she explored a similar topic in other articles in the same paper up until 1980. As a student, she earned money doing calligraphy for signboards and stitching skirts for the Wzór Visual Arts Co-op. Later she began illustrating books, swiftly gaining recognition and her first awards (including ones from Nasza Księgarnia Publishers and the jury of Poznań’s Art Biennale for children in 1984 and 1991).

‘Dynastia Miziołków’ (The Miziołek Dynasty), her best-known children’s novel, was initially printed in instalments in Świat Młodych (1993). It tells the story of a twelve-year-old everyone calls Miziołek and his family – Mommy, Pops and his younger siblings, Katred and Little Monster.

In 1995, Joanna Olech received the Kornel Makuszyński Literary Award for this book, and a year later, the Children’s Bestseller of the Year. Among the awards she has taken, we ought to mention the distinctions in the Most Beautiful Book of the Year 2005 in the Polish Book Society competition, for ‘Czerwony Kapturek’ (Red Riding Hood), which also received honorary distinctions in the Polish Section of IBBY Competition. A year later, a book illustrated by Joanna Olech and Marta Ignerska, Marcin Brykczyński’s ‘Róźowy prosiaczek’ (Pink Piglet), received mentions in both those competitions.

Since 2003, Joanna Olech has been a member of the Polish Section of IBBY, and for two terms, she was a member of its council. In 2014, she became a juror in a competition for the best Polish children’s book in the Festival of Children’s Literature. Apart from books, she publishes critical articles on children’s literature in Tygodnik Powszechny, Rzeczpospolita, Nowe Książki and Gazeta Wyborcza. Since 2014, she has been running her own column on children’s and young adult literature in Książki. Magazyn do Czytania. She is an expert at the Polish Film Institute, and also sits in the Hestia Literary Voyage contest chapter. She is a founding member of the Literary Union.