Joanna Oparek

(b. 1967) – poet, prose writer, lyricist, playwright, theatre director and cultural organiser.

She has published the poetry collections “Po kostki w niebie” (Ankle-deep in Heaven, 2003), “Czerwie” (Maggots, 2012), “Berlin Porn” (2015), “Mocne skóry, białe płótna” (Firm Skins, White Canvasses, 2019), “Małe powinności” (Small Duties, 2022), as well as a volume of selected poems entitled “Rozbiór. Wiersze i poematy” (Partition. Poems, 2024) and the novels “Mężczyzna z kodem kreskowym” (The Barcode Man, 2004), “Jesień w Nowym Jorku” (Autumn in New York, 2006), “Loża” (The Box, 2012). Firm Skins, White Canvasses received a nomination for the Gdynia Literary Prize in 2020. Small Duties won the title of the Kraków Book of the Month, and the author’s second Gdynia Literary Prize nomination (both in 2023). As a playwright she has worked with the Narodowy Stary Teatr in Kraków, Teatr Nowy in Kraków and Teatr Miejski in Gliwice. She has written the plays “Projekt Ameryka“ (The America Project), “Wężowisko” (The Snakepit), “Obcy. Tragedia grecka” (The Stranger. A Greek Tragedy), “Całe życie” (The Whole Life), “Dobra Rodzina” (A Good Family) and “Osobliwość / Singularity”. She directed The Whole Life (2021) and A Good Family (2023) at the Teatr Miejski in Gliwice. Her works have been staged or stage read under the direction of creators including Radosław Rychcik, Janusz Marchwiński, Sebastian Myłek. Since 2021, the author has been a board member of the Tadeusz Różewicz Playwriting Award, of which she was also the initiator.

Joanna Oparek debuted as a prose writer in 1994 with the novel “Pan Gałązka, czyli jak zamienić kłopoty na gotówkę?” (Mr Gałązka, or How to Exchange Trouble for Cash), serialised in “Przekrój”. In the 1990s she worked as a journalist, and was the creative director of the advertising agency Publika for ten years. As a lyricist, she’s worked with the rock band Kulturka since 1998. In 2012 she co-created Scena 21 in Kraków, and she is the co-founder of the Queer Culture Centre QCK. Collaborating with the Otwarta Pracownia gallery in Kraków, she organises regular events combining visual arts and literature. Her poems have been translated into English, Spanish, Serbian, Czech and Danish, and included in many anthologies.