Karolina Kapusta

Born in Gliwice. She is a poet.

She debuted with the volume “fuzja bordo” (claret fusion), which is about cancer treatment. The poet uses rhythm to talk about the experience of illness and pain, which makes her poetry unsettling, full of tension and devoid of solace. Many poems feature medical paraphernalia: there are painkillers, surgeries, scabs, catheters. However, the author’s aim is not to precisely reconstruct the process of treatment, but redirect the reader’s attention to what is happening to the patient (patients), and to the shifts in attitude towards one’s own sick body.

Claret fusion does not have one specific protagonist; there is the “community of achy beings” who share the feeling of alienation from their own body, which becomes “flesh” – moulded, formed, kneaded by doctors. Due to medication, it changes so much that the protagonists no longer recognise themselves in the mirror. Being unwell becomes a determinant of identity. And nothing – no rhythmical lullaby – can bring comfort.

The volume claret fusion was nominated for the Wiesław Kazanecki Literary Award of the Białystok City Mayor.