Julia Fiedorczuk

(b. 1975) – poet and prose writer.

She also works as a translator, literary critic and humanities scholar. A professor at the University of Warsaw, academic lecturer at the Institute of English Studies (University of Warsaw) and co-founder of the School of Ecopoetics at the Reportage Institute.

Fiedorczuk’s writing represents a non-anthropocentric perspective on the world. The author’s affinity with ecofeminism is also obvious; from the volume “Tlen” (Oxygen) onwards, it has been complemented with a Romantic philosophy seen through a postmodern prism. In “Listopad nad Narwią” (November at the River Narew) Fiedorczuk presented a vision of the world dominated by motifs of journey, yearning, and bonding not only with a beloved person, but with all living beings. In subsequent books the poet expanded her vision to include cosmic landscapes, parallel worlds shown at both macro and micro level. In Oxygen we can read about “the great soul of the world”, light explosions, the gigantic organs of the universe and compost microorganisms, neutrinos and haemoglobin transporting life-giving oxygen. In “Psalmy” (published in English as Psalms) the author stands up for marginalised people, but also for the plants, animals and landscapes doing the work of grief for those who died in the events of a nascent global war, and for the irretrievably lost species and ecosystems.

In this way, Fiedorczuk and her poetry have joined the discussion about the relationship between art and science (technology), about the new sensibility and sensuality in post-technological conditions. Her oeuvre is a continuation of the philosophy of writing initiated by Bolesław Leśmian and developed by Miron Białoszewski and Krystyna Miłobędzka – artists continually pointing out the blurry boundaries between the human and the non-human; Fiedorczuk can also be seen as a poet recording the new sensibility of the post-humanist world.

In her short story collection “Poranek Marii” (Maria’s Morning) and novel “Biała Ofelia” (White Ophelia) Fiedorczuk focuses, in turn, on female stories which – although consistently shown in a socio-political context – can be understood as metaphors for otherness, difference, alienation. Using sensual and supple language Fiedorczuk shows that a subject who feels compassion towards everything that lives can also demystify social conventions and critically analyse human communities.

Her novel “Pod słońcem” (Under the Sun) features incredibly vivid and original portraits of people who make up a multi-cultural, multilingual and contradictory Podlasie. The structure of “Dom Oriona” (The House of Orion), reminiscent of a constellation, transports us to place after place – the Białowieża Forest, hectic Athens, a rainforest in central Mexico. We follow the intriguing, mysterious, interweaving fates of people, animals, minerals and eternally moving stars. The most recent book of poetry, “Glif” (Glyph), is not only a collection of poems, but also a philosophical treatise about time, identity and porousness.

Julia Fiedorczuk’s poetry debut November on the River Narew (2000) won the Polish Book Publishers’ Association Prize; she was also nominated for the 2016 Nike Literary Award for the novel “Nieważkość” (Weightlessness). She won the 2018 Wisława Szymborska Award for Psalms; in that same year, the book also received a nomination for the Silesius Poetry Award in the Book of the Year category. In 2020 she was nominated for the Julian Tuwim Literary Award, and in 2021 – for the Literary Award of the Capital City of Warsaw for the novel Under the Sun.