Marzena Broda

(b. 1966) – poet, prose writer, playwright and screenwriter, co-founder of Teatr Skaza.

Broda’s debut volume “Światło przestrzeni” (The Light of Space), published in 1990, was deemed one of the most interesting poetry books to appear after the watershed of the year 1989. The writer lived abroad for a few years – in the US and in Germany – which was reflected in her subsequent work, such as the novels “Nie dotykać Normana Hammera” (Do Not Touch Norman Hammer) and “Luka” (Luka), or the play “Skaza” (Flaw), all set in America. Initially Broda focused on poetry, creating subtle, feminine lyric verse. Stanisław Balbus wrote about her poems: “Precision, order, economy, but also a vividness and large scale of the imagination, a sharpness to the seeing of things and occurrences are combined here with the ability to illuminate their universal meanings, introduce them into metaphysical perspectives, where every object, every being given in a one-time flash of sensory epiphany is, simultaneously, a resident of the universe”. Later she focused on prose and plays. She in interested in flawed characters, marked with acute otherness, struggling with themselves and the world that they do not want to or cannot accept. Their problems are most often rooted in traumatic experiences: the eponymous character in Don’t Touch Norman Hammer was molested by his adoptive father, the siblings from Flaw were victims of violence and sexual abuse, which ultimately drove them to an incestuous relationship. Broda subjects her characters’ psyche to painful dissection, revealing all the trauma and fears, describing their helplessness and feelings of being lost. In her books plot is less significant, usually fragmentary, and often – like in Luka – spanning harsh reality, delusion and fabrication; this is because Broda’s priority is to depict spiritual landscapes, note every shudder of emotion. This is enabled by her particular style, full of symbolism and delicate poeticisation.

Her poetry debut received a distinction in the Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna Prize contest in 1991. The volume “Cudzoziemszczyzna” (Foreignness) received a distinction from book publishers (1996) and received the Stanisław Barańczak Prize-Grant (1998). Her play Flaw came second at the Interpretations National Festival of the Art of Directing (2005), received a prize at the “Two Theatres” Polish Radio and Television Theatre Festival (2006), and in 2008 it was included in the list of 100 best theatre plays in the history of the Teatr Telewizji (TV Theatre). Ministry of Culture grant holder.