Tadeusz Zubiński

(1953-2018) – writer, critic, essayist, translator.

Tadeusz Zubiński spent his childhood and youth in Suchedniów, where he returned after two years at university. Around 1980, he became involved with the local branch of Solidarność (Solidarity) and remained active in the movement throughout the ’80s, in Biała Podlaska and Kraków as well as Suchedniów. After 1989, he settled in Złotów, where he worked at the Thermal Power Plant. In 1995, he moved to Bydgoszcz. From 1998 to ’99, he was the editorial secretary of the literary monthly “Akant”. From 2000, he was based in Kielce but also spent time working in Lithuania, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Germany. He lived in Latvia for a few years, and later in Spain. In 2017, he returned to Poland.

Zubiński’s prose often focuses on the area of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, a region close to his heart. Many of his novels are set in Wrzosów, symbolising his hometown of Suchedniów in the Kielce region (“Dawno i daleko”, Long Ago and Far Away; “Opowieści wrzosowskie”, Wrzosów Tales). Zubiński is known as the prose writer of the Kielce region. He particularly enjoyed using vivid images of the local nature in his work. It is these detailed descriptions that constitute one of the most important features of his writing – his novel “Odlot dzikich gęsi” (The Flight of the Wild Geese), rich in picturesque portrayals of nature, received the Cultural Foundation Award in 2000.

Zubiński often juxtaposes personal dramas with historical issues, focusing particularly on the borderlands. Through his work, he analyses the past, as well as our mechanisms of processing history, and reflects on lost time, which is subject to idealisation (“Góry na niebie”, Mountains in the Sky; “Burza pod lasem”, The Storm Near the Forest; “Wieża i inne opowiadania”, The Tower and Other Stories; “Ogień przy drodze”, The Fire by the Road). The action of “Burza pod lasem” takes place in the borderland Złotowszczyzna region, while “Ogień przy drodze” is set in the Eastern Borderlands, in Volhynia and Podolia. It examines the drama of the Soviet and German occupation, the massacre of Poles in the region, and against this background, the life of a married couple, the Winnickis. The polyphonic composition reflects the ambiguity of both major historical events and personal choices.

In Zubiński’s prose, detail plays an important role, transporting the reader to distant times and places, far from the hustle and bustle of modern urban life. In addition to major historical events, he also analyses the present and its ongoing transformations. His critical voice is particularly strong in the novel “Rzymska wojna” (The Roman War), which calls on Poles to reckon with the period of the Polish People’s Republic and highlights the consequences of abandoning this process.

In addition to novels and short story collections, Zubiński also had numerous pieces published in the major Polish literary magazines, including “Akant”, “Akcent”, “Elewator”, “Fraza”, “Odra” and “Twórczość”, as well as in social, cultural, historical and regional publications such as “Kresy”, “Radostowa”, “Teologia Polityczna” and “Tygiel Kultury”.

Zubiński also addressed the histories of other nations, vividly describing their mythologies, cultures, beliefs and iconic figures. Among others, he wrote books about General Franco and the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal. He authored the acclaimed “Słownik mitów i tradycji rodzimych narodów Estonii, Litwy i Łotwy” (A Dictionary of Myths and Traditions of the Native Nations of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) and “Mitologia estońska i liwska” (Estonian and Livonian Mythology). He also published numerous articles and books on the culture and history of the Baltic States and the history of Spain, with particular emphasis on the first half of the 20th century. From 2004, he was the deputy editor-in-chief of the monthly “Świat Inflant”. As a member of the Livonian brotherhood, he went by the name Āpsis.

Zubiński won the J.I. Kraszewski Competition (1989), the Natalia Gall Foundation Award (1995), the Culture Foundation Award (2000), the Stefan Żeromski Literary Competition (2003) and the Świętokrzyska Culture Award (2010). He was twice nominated for the Angelus Central European Literature Award (in 2008 and 2011). He was awarded scholarships by the governments of the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Latvia.