Marta Kwaśnicka

(b. 1981) – an essayist, prose writer and editor, the author of literary criticism. She graduated in philosophy and archaeology, and holds a PhD in the humanities.

She made her debut in Topos in 2004. She earned acclaim from the critics for her erudite, subtle and original essays on the ties between art, religion and existence, drawing from the essay traditions of Zbigniew Herbert, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński and Andrzej Kijowski. Her debut volume of sketches, ‘Krew z mlekiem’ (Blood with Milk), released in 2014, is a tale of her private fascination for European and Polish art, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Kwaśnicka’s portraits of artists, sometimes forgotten or little known, and her insightful analyses of literary works, paintings and architecture, remind us of the spiritual and metaphysical roots of European culture, its Christian foundations, and are often a pretext for reflections of a theological or existential nature. Kwaśnicka’s second volume, Jadwiga, is not just an essayistic biography of the titular protagonist, a holy Catholic saint, Queen of Poland and also an independent and outstanding woman; it is also a literary portrait of Krakow and a polemic with the Romantic tradition.

In 2019, Kwaśnicka released a well-received short-story collection, ‘Pomyłka’ (The Mistake), made up of stories of the young generation of Polish intellectuals, who, thinking for themselves, try to find their place in modern civilisation. The author’s writing is detached, somewhat unemotional, sometimes self-effacing. Her erudite prose intrigues and inspires.

Kwaśnicka’s first novel, ‘Widoki’ (Sights), is the portrait of a scene, rendering the phobias, convictions, impulses and habits of its members. The dinner with friends that serves as a backdrop is an opportunity for small talk, but also recapping a generation and its challenges. The intellectual ethos, politics, privilege – the writer raises some fundamental issues which are seldom discussed.

Kwaśnicka is also the author of sketches, critical texts and short stories published in periodicals. She won a Young Poland Scholarship. She has published two academic works on the history of the Jesuits.

Kwaśnicka’s books have been awarded on several occasions. For her book of essays Blood with Milk she received the Identitas Literary Award (2015) and distinction in the Feniks Award of the Catholic Publishers Association, as well as a nomination for the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award; Jadwiga was honoured with the National Library’s Skrzydła Dedala Literary Award. In 2020, she received the Marek Nowakowski Literary Award for The Mistake. This book was also nominated for the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award.