Rafał Wojasiński

(b. 1974) – prose writer, playwright.

Rafał Wojasiński is the head of the prose department at the literary quarterly “Wyspa”. He works as a teacher and a lecturer.

He has written novels, short stories and over twenty texts for the theatre, as well as a biography of the actor Jan Nowicki (2009). His most popular works include the short story collections “Złodziej ryb” (The Fish Thief, 2004) and “Olanda” (2018), the novella “Stara” (The Old Woman, 2011), and the novel “Tefil” (2022).

The heroes of Wojasiński’s prose are usually regular people going about their everyday lives – but Wojasiński is one of those writers who believe that looking at simple images allows us to grasp the greatest mysteries of existence. Marian Pilot described Wojasiński’s early work as follows: “Raw, rough prose. A precise, cold view of reality. A penetrating, brutal analysis of the soul of a man condemned to live in a world more cruel than ever. A vision of the banal, the commonplace, imperceptibly transforming into the uncanny. Rafał Wojasiński, a writer by the grace of God. Different, unlike any other.”

The basic direction of Wojasiński’s work has not changed over the years, although nowadays he increasingly strives to enter into dialogue with the greats – Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, or Edward Stachura in “Tefil”. This particular book is full of insightful observations about contemporary society chasing material goods and adhering to a consumerist lifestyle.

Wojasiński won the Marek Nowakowski Literary Award “for his mastery of various types of short stories, his excellent use of language, and finally, for the consistency with which he has portrayed, over many years, the poor people of our times, the wronged and the humiliated, in a way that is subtle and profound.” In several of the stories in “Olanda” (“Niebo dla Meli”, Heaven for Mela; “Nowy człowiek”, The New Man; “Pustka”, The Void; “Wizyta”, The Visit; “Mój mąż”, My Husband; “Hiacynt”, Hyacinth), the reader encounters the metaphysical problems of characters who profess a philosophy of the ordinary and embrace the poetics of everyday life.

In his latest book, “Zapomniane” (The Forgotten), Wojasiński gives voice to women, addressing topics such as loneliness, marginalisation, separateness and disintegration. The heroines use language to overcome their difficulties, uncertainty, failures and lack of acceptance, as the narrative becomes more important than the plot itself and allows the reader to reflect on their own experiences and to become a participant in the events described.

Wojasiński has received the Marek Nowakowski Literary Award for “Olanda” (2018), the Gdynia Drama Award for the play “Siostry” (Sisters, 2019), and the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award for “Tefil” (2023).

His works (in whole or in part) have been translated into English, Bulgarian and Spanish.