Paweł Beręsewicz

(b. 1970) – a prose writer, poet and translator, author of several dozen adventure novels and non-fiction books for children and young adults.

His work often makes use of surprising concepts. The poetry volume “Czy pisarzom burczy w brzuchu” (Do Writers’ Stomachs Rumble) delivers humorous answers to the questions children ask during author events. While reading the book, we can find out whether it’s hard to be a writer, whether writing can become “contagious” within a family and – of course – whether writers get rumbly stomachs.

The key part of Beręsewicz’s oeuvre is the series of books about the Ciumkos – a seemingly ordinary Warsaw family who has incredible adventures. In the short story collection opening the series, “Co tam u Ciumków?” (How Are Things with the Ciumkos?), the protagonists work on inventing a clockwork dog holder and fight a “bottle cap battle”; the readers also find out about the spider’s sad fate and all about “the omnivores”. In subsequent volumes the likeable family go on a cycling trip to France (“Wielka wyprawa Ciumków” – The Ciumkos’ Great Journey), travel around the Scottish wilderness (“Ciumkowie w szkocką kratę” – The Ciumkos Wear Tartan) and walk around Warsaw, presenting the capital’s most interesting spots (“Warsaw. Spacery z Ciumkami” – Warsaw. Ambling with the Ciumkos).

In his novels for young adults, Beręsewicz discusses current issues, such as the way advancing technology affects human life, or the consequences of spreading fake news. Filip, the teenage protagonist of “Szeptane” (Whispered), has a staggering career in online marketing, simultaneously learning about the mechanisms of manipulation. In the dystopian “Mąciciel” (Troublemaker) Jonasz Kurowski has to face a system which tries to deprive him of his individuality and force him to think according to accepted patterns.

Paweł Beręsewicz has received the “Guliwer w Krainie Olbrzymów” (Gulliver in Brobdingnag) Award (2005) and the Kornel Makuszyński Literary Award (2006, 2008 and 2011), won the PTWK Literary Competition (2008) and the Literary Award of the Capital City of Warsaw (2010), received the third prize in the Astrid Lindgren Literary Competition (2011), the first prize in the Astrid Lindgren Literary Competition (2013 and 2017) and the Yellow Poulaine Award (2025). His books have received multiple nominations in the Book of the Year competition organised by the Polish Section of IBBY.

He has created or co-created Polish-English and English-Polish dictionaries. His translations into Polish include Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Lucy Maud-Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.

More information about Paweł Beręsewicz’s work can be found on the website https://www.pawelberesewicz.pl/.