Karolina Krasny

(b. 1999) – a writer, illustrator, author of two experimental prose books, editor of the “Stoner Polski” magazine.

Her prose is formally complex; she writes mainly about love, using intricate language and strange, surprising word combinations and similes.

She debuted with the book “Love song”. Its protagonists, young man XY and older woman Zet, meet at a bus stop and then, due to a series of strange events, fall somewhat in love. The word “somewhat” is key, because Love song is not about a beautiful love. The protagonists’ relationship is difficult and gradually falls apart. Krasny additionally complicates the story by assembling it together from ambiguous, surreal images. This effect is achieved mainly through the language – lyrical, elaborate, full of unexpected similes and metaphors.

“Strefa II” (Area II) is the author’s next book. It tells of the genesis (in the biblical meaning) of the titular Area II, which is less of a place and more of a state, sometimes even a subject. The creator of this phenomenon, Echo, is also the father of a family whose history is told by depicting subsequent romantic – but not necessarily amorous – relationships between the individual protagonists. Although at the very beginning we find a family tree and an outline of events, the plot unfolds in a non-linear fashion. Krasny employs irregular and surprising story beats, which makes Area II a sort of mythology, a legend which lacks a precisely defined subject.