Krystyna Dąbrowska

(b. 1979) – poet, translator, essayist.

Dąbrowska graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. She debuted as a poet in 2001 with poems published in the literature and art magazine “Pracownia”. Her literary sketches, essays and poetry translations appeared in, among others, “Kwartalnik Artystyczny” and “Literatura na Świecie”. She translates English-language poetry (including William Carlos Williams, W. B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Thom Gunn, Ruth Padel, Charles Simic). She also writes reviews, poetry sketches and radio plays.

Until 2020, Dąbrowska was a member of the Polish Writers’ Association; since 2012 she has been a member of the Polish PEN Club, and in 2017 she became a founding member of the writers’ union Unia Literacka.

Krystyna Dąbrowska’s poetry is characterised by discretion and self-restraint; she often makes use of oblique statements and ambiguity. Her poems are simple, legible and devoid of elaborate ornamentation – their main impulse is a desire to comprehend and relate the world. Their point of departure is often a detail, depicted in the poem like on a photograph. Everyday events, observations from local or distant journeys or descriptions of material objects give the poet a reason to ask existential questions.

It was already in her debut volume, Biuro podróży” (Travel Agency), that Dąbrowska found her particular lyrical language. Its important element is the city, seen almost as natural human habitat, giving people a sense of safety and identity – but also predatory, endangering them with its elements.

The award-winning poetry book “Białe krzesła” (White Chairs) brings more travel impressions. The author is keenly interested in distant cultures, especially those with centuries-old traditions. The book also contains a series of portraits – of people close to the author and of strangers. Looking for the meaning of their life, the poet also searches for the meaning of existence in general.

The most prominent theme of the volume “Czas i przesłona” (Time and Aperture) is an amorous relationship between a man and a woman, described as a mutually inspiring encounter, a consummation, an endless conversation. To Dąbrowska, another person is a source of constant interest and inspiration. She approaches everyday objects and nature with identical understanding and openness. All her poems are written with Zbigniew Herbert’s “tenderness for stones birds and people”.

As a poet, Dąbrowska places herself in the role of a liaison between animate and inanimate nature, between different cultures, generations, ways of life, and also between the living and the dead. “I’m a travel agency for the dead / booking flights to the dreams of the living” – she wrote in the title poem in her first poetry book (translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones).

Her poetry has been translated into English, French, Greek, German, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish and Italian.

In 2013, her volume White Chairs received the Kościelski Award, the Wisława Szymborska Award and the Warsaw Literary Premiere Award. Dąbrowska has been the beneficiary of many stipends and a participant of multiple artistic residencies.