Marcin Podlaski

(b. 1993) – a poet and editor.

He graduated in Linguistics from the Nicholas Copernicus University in Toruń. He comes from Stępów, and lives in Krakow.

Podlaski is the author of the poetry volumes ‘trzysta cytryn do trzeciej potęgi tygrysa’ (three hundred lemons cubed by a tiger, 2020) and czeznia (2024). In his debut, he replicates and uses the language of people experiencing psychosis. Schizophasia, one of its symptoms, is seen not only in the speech of the lyrical subject, but also through various typographical tactics. The book features religious and military/political motifs. Podlaski’s project, involving the destigmatisation of languages from beyond the linguistic norm, continues in his second book, in an entirely different form. Czeznia dives into the roots of the Polish language – poems devoid of diacritics, also with fragments in old Church Slavonic. The archaic language is combined with colloquial expressions and Internet slang. The central themes are powerlessness and the passage of time.

Podlaski is the winner of the Biuro Literackie project ‘The Hunt: Poetry Debuts 2018’, the winner of the First Prize at the Polish Halina Poświatowska Poetry Award in the debut category (2018), and the main prize in the Young Poetry Competition (2019). His poems have appeared in anthologies: ‘Połów. Poetyckie debiuty 2018’ (The Hunt: Poetry Debuts 2018, Biuro Literackie, 2018); ‘Szwadron szwargotań. Nowa polska poezja protestu’ (The Twitter Squad: New Polish protest Poetry) in Polish and Romanian (Mamałyga Warszawska, Platzforma.md, 2019), ‘Wiersze i opowiadania doraźne 2019’ (Poems and Ad Hoc Stories, Biuro Literackie, 2019); and ‘Bar Sedno’ (The Crux Bar, Szubińskie Towarzystwo Kulturalne, 2023).

He has published in Stoner Polski, Trytytka, Tlen Literacki, KONTENT, 8. Arkusz Odry, biBLioteka, Wizje, Drobiazgi, Helikopter, Wakat, Inter-, Salon Literacki, and Fabularie. He was co-founder and member of the editorial collective of Rzyrador (2019–21), co-editor of the poetry section of Tlen Literacki (2019–20), co-creator and member of Torun’s literary group Strzyga (2016–19), co-initiator and juror of a competition for young artists and co-editor of a post-competition publication, ‘Wyjustowani. Antologia młodych twórców’ (Justified: An Anthology of Young Writers, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, 2018). Since 2019, he has participated in the Krakow Poetry School, since July 2024 he has co-organised and run ongoing OPEN MIC events.

His MA project, ‘Semantyczne funkcje północnosłowiańskiego datiwu w perspektywie dynamicznej i statycznej’ (Semantic Functions of the Northern Slavic Dative in the Dynamic and Static Perspective), written under Prof. Piotr Sobotka at the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Copernicus University in Toruń, came in second in the Czesław Zgorzelski Competition for best Polish Studies MA projects. During his studies, he mainly explored linguistics, took part in conferences and published articles. He has been a member of the Polish Linguistics Society (2018–23) and the Polish Language Lovers Society (2017–22).