Miłka Malzahn

(b. 1971) – a poet, prose writer, author of plays and song lyrics, and a vocalist.

Malzahn holds a PhD in philosophy from the Nicholas Copernicus University in Toruń. She works as a radio journalist with ties to Radio Toruń and Radio Białystok. In 1995, she won the Festival of Student Songs in Krakow. In 2001, she released her first volume of poems (‘Rzeczy wydarzone’ [Things That Happened]), and a short-story collection, ‘Baronowa Późna Jesień’ (The Late Autumn Baroness).

Miłka Malzahn’s prose stands out with its unusual and recognisable style, reflecting a unique manner of viewing the world. Right from her first short stories in The Late Autumn Baroness, she had found her voice. In simple terms, we might place her work in the women’s literature movement, yet this is not entirely apt, because – to paraphrase the title of one story in this volume – she ‘works different’ from most Polish female writers. She does not introduce feminist themes, nor describe women’s fate in terms of exclusion, nor depict contemporary scenes from women’s lives. She does try to bring the reader into a woman’s world, sketch the specifics of her sensitivity and ways of seeing reality. Malzahn writes of women in search of their identity (‘Królowa rabarbaru’ [The Queen of Rhubarb]), the complexities of male-female relationships and women’s friendships at various ages (The Late Autumn Baroness, ‘Nie ma mono’ [There’s No Mono]). All the same, she avoids a naive brand of realism. She is less interested in describing ‘hard’ reality than penetrating the ontologically frail space of dreams, imagination, premonitions or simply fiction. It is there, in the space between truth and invention, that she seeks answers to a fundamental question: Who is she, and who is the contemporary woman? Malzahn creates interesting portraits of women along the way, far from their stereotype images.

This writer plays with conventions and piles on the layers of fiction, creating prose that is refined and intriguing, to satisfy those in search of literary tidbits and those who devour exciting plots. The setting of her 2015 novel, ‘9 mgnień wiosny byłego cara’ (9 Springtime Flashes of a Former Tsar), is the Białowieża Forest, and the plot, as usual in this writer, bridges various worlds and times. The ghost of Tsar Alexander III appears on the steps of an Orthodox Church in 2034, and to help him the protagonist must confront demons of the past. Yet what is most important is always happening here and now.

Miłka Malzahn has also made two records: ‘Mapa’ (The Map) and Sequel. She also host an art podcast, ‘Dziennik Zmian’ (A Diary of Changes).