Marlena Niemiec

(b. 1997) – a poet.

A Polish Studies graduate, majoring in Anthropology/Cultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University. She lives in Krakow.

Her debut was the poetry volume ‘cierpkie’ (bitter, 2022), for which she received the Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna Award. Niemiec’s poems engage all the senses; they achieve this with a special rhythm and rhyme, they are haptic and sensual, yet dynamic. The stakes in this book are a person grappling with the world in all its intensity, and also a person in a state of disintegration, in a process of disappearance. Her second book, ‘skroń’ (temple, 2025), is a study of anxiety and an attempt to assimilate it. These poems combine everyday life and a sense of danger – what is safe and familiar and what is fragile and uncertain.

She won the 14^th edition of Biuro Literackie’s The Hunt: Poetry Debuts 2019 project, and a set of ten of her poems appeared in a poetry anthology of the same title. In February 2019 she took part in the One Poem Opening at the Otwarta Pracownia in Krakow. She took an award at the 40^th Halina Poświatowska Polish Poetry Competition and the 6^th Polish Young Poetry Competition. She was a participant in and winner of the First Poetry Book Workshop 2022 organised by Biuro Literackie. She wrote a poem for the anniversary publication of the Bunkier Sztuki in Krakow, ‘Uchylone wnętrze. Literacka opowieść o Kolekcji Bunkra Sztuki’ (Open Interiors: A Literary Tale of the Bunkier Sztuki Collection, Bunkier Sztuki, 2025).

She has published her poetry in: Czas Literatury, biBLioteka, Tlen Literacki, Trytytka, Liberté!, Wizje and Helikopter. She has also appeared at literary festivals: Stacja Literatura, TransPort Literacki, the Miłosz Festival, Krakow Night of Poetry and Lublin Poetry Stage. Her poems have been translated into Czech, Spanish and Ukrainian.