Paweł Kusiak

(b. 1998) – a poet and editor.

He comes from Krosno and lives in Krakow. He debuted with a book of poems, ‘Grypsy proroków’ (Codes of the Prophets, 2022), which premiered at Krakow’s Miłosz Festival. The book reaches back to Christian tradition, drawing out what might serve to build a mood of horror. This disquiet is also ‘derisive’ in order to create a language that can describe life in a ‘necrocapitalist’ reality. His next book, Lacrimosa trip (2024), premiered during Krakow’s Night of Poetry. Its main theme is mourning, not just for loved ones, but also grieving the world that could have been, but never happened. The late-capitalist reality of Lacrimosa is haunted by spectres of war, pandemic and crisis. The author seeks a way to live a non-life.

Kusiak was a finalist in the Biuro Literackie projects The Hunt: Poetry Debuts 2018, and First Poetry Book Workshop 2020. He was winner of the The Hunt: Poetry Debuts project in 2019, and his works appeared in an anthology by the same title.

He has published his poems in literary journals: biBLioteka, Tlen Literacki, Kontent, Mały Format, Stoner Polski, Wizje, Drobiazgi, Strona Czynna, Zakład, Helikopter, Wakat, Czas Literatury and Nowy Napis. His poems have also appeared in anthologies: ‘Wiersze i opowiadania doraźne 2019’ (Ephemeral Poems and Stories 2019, Biuro Literackie, 2019), ‘Biji Rojava! Antologia wierszy’ (Biji Rojava! A Poetry Anthology, 2019), ‘Wiersze i opowiadania doraźne 2020’ (Ephemeral Poems and Stories, 2020, Biuro Literackie, 2020), ‘Wiersze w czasach zarazy. Jednodniówka poetycka’ (Poems in the Time of Cholera: A Poetry One-Off, Instytut Literatury, 2020), ‘Kontent wybrany. Antologia 2017–2020’ (Selected Content: An Anthology 2017–20, KONTENT, 2021), ‘Uchylone wnętrze. Literacka opowieść o Kolekcji Bunkra Sztuki’ (Interiors Cracked Open: A Literary Tale of the Bunkier Sztuki Collection, Bunkier Sztuki, 2025). His works have been translated into Ukrainian and Spanish.

He was co-founder of the literary quarterly Rzyrador and its editor in 2019–20. As a cultural animator in co-operation with the Biuro Wystaw Poetyckich in Krosno, he organised a series of poetry readings and workshops for young people in 2021, the Poetry Works, while in 2023 he and the Voivodeship Public Library in Krosno ran a series for middle and high school students, Profession: Poet. With the Otwarta Pracownia Arts Association he organised a poetry event segment at the Otwarta Pracownia art gallery for the Krakow Night of Poetry 2023.