Max Cegielski

(b. 1975, real name Maksymilian Stefan Cegielski) – a journalist, reporter, traveller, radio and television presenter, and a poet (pseud. Maxymilian Grodyński).

In his reportage, as in his fiction, he is mainly interested in the intersection of cultures, the intermingling of the influences of East and West. He delves into the possibility of understanding the ‘other’, spreading their perception, and the consequences that arise from such efforts.

Cegielski’s first book, ‘Masala’, written in 2002, is a road novel centred on autobiographical motifs, about a backpacking trip to India. Its protagonist, a popular radio and TV presenter, sets off for Asia to see his life from a distance, to reevaluate it and overcome his addiction to drugs. When he is there, he experiences a remarkable intensity, both spiritual and sensual. Cegielski plays on stereotypes (for instance, of India as a hippy Mecca) and reveals a knack for reportage that finds full expression in his later books.

In ‘Pijani Bogiem’ (Drunk on God), the reportage that came from the author’s several trips to Pakistan, he is chiefly interested in the mystical strand of Islam (Sufism), while in ‘Oko świata. Od Konstantynopola do Stambułu’ (The Eye of the World: From Constantinople to Istanbul) he aims to overcome the sentimental postcard image of this metropolis that has been perpetuated in Western culture, trying to grasp the essence of the transformations in this dynamically developing and pulsing city.

‘Mozaika. Śladami Rechowiczów’ (Mosaic: In the Footsteps of the Rechowiczes) is the biographical tale of a married couple, Hanna and Gabriel Rechowicz – artists, illustrators and designers whose original work gave colour to the grey everyday reality of communist Poland. In ‘Leksykon buntowników’ (The Rebels’ Lexicon), in turn, Cegielski sketches portraits of charismatic figures in music and literature (from Bob Dylan to Andy Warhol and Magik of Paktofonika), while ‘Wielki gracz. Ze Żmudzi na Dach Świata’ (The Great Player: From Samogitia to the Rooftop of the World) is both a biography and a report on a journalistic trip in the footsteps of Bronisław Grąbczewski, a key figure in the Great Game, the espionage competition between the secret services of Great Britain and Tsarist Russia to gain influence in Central Asia in the late nineteenth century.

Cegielski has also written two novels, depicting hermetic societies with tight plots and compelling language: one about Polish smugglers working in the 1980s in India (Prince Polonia), and the other about Himalayists, ‘Mam na imię Czogori’ (My Name Is Czigori). His latest book, ‘Kongo w Polsce. Włóczęgi z Josephem Conradem’ (The Congo in Poland: Wandering with Joseph Conrad), in turn, is a collection of essays recording travels through Poland, joined by the figure of Conrad.

He received the Beata Pawlak Award in 2009 for The Eye of the World: From Constantinople to Istanbul.

Since the mid 1990s, Max Cegielski has worked in the media, he was a Canal+ TV presenter, he has had programmes at several radio stations (he presently hosts the Text Folder series for Radio Three), he has also co-written and hosted television programmes (including Departure Hall for TVP Kultura and Bookshoppe for TVN24). His pieces have appeared in Gazeta Wyborcza, Tygodnik Powszechny, Newsweek, Machina, Fluid, Elle and Przekrój. He is the co-founder of the Masala Sound System music collective. Since 2025 he has been a member of the Literary Union Board.