Tomasz Gromadka

(b. 1985) – a playwright, prose writer and poet, culture animator and social activist.

He is the winner of the Biuro Literackie projects The Hunt: Poetry Debuts 2020 and First Poetry Book 2021. He published the poetry book ‘Komunizm, gówno i może cię kocham’ (Communism, Shit, and Maybe I Love You, 2022), which joins the public and the private spheres and plays with sincerity and authenticity. This is a book about family and amorous relationships, about activist communities and, above all, relations with yourself. The theme of masculinity introduced here is continued in his prose – ‘Przygody Pitera i pępowinowego psa’ (PP i pp) (Piter’s Peregrinations and the bulldog’s bellybutton [PP and bb], 2025). The main protagonist is Piter, a depressive and lonely incel in his late twenties, who gives birth to a dog to have a friend in life. We might see the novel as a literary experiment about solitude, trauma and toxic dependent relations. Its language is practically Surrealist, and the events are exaggerated and grotesque.

Gromadka has published in the following journals: Wakat, Helikopter, Dwutygodnik, Wizje, Odra, Strona Czynna, Codziennik Feministyczny, Dziennik Opinii, Tlen Literacki and biBLioteka. His plays ‘Deportacja’ (Deportation) and ‘Strajk arabskich pielęgniarek’ (Strike of the Arab Nurses) were printed in Dialog. Plays based on Gromadka’s work have been staged in Warsaw, Poznań, Bologna and Brussels.

He collaborates with the Strefa WolnoSłowa Foundation, which organises art workshops focused on multicultural dialogue, creating interpersonal bonds and nurturing anti-racist stances. He holds writing classes, meetings and workshops at the Stół Powszechny – a cafe and workshop space run out of the Zygmunt Hubner Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw. He belongs to the Autonomous Education Space collective, a grass-roots group of teachers doing free educational classes. He runs classes in writing and word improv in schools, prisons and squats, and is involved in the work of Camp for the Climate. He is a member of the Chłopaki Performance Group and the Theatre Teachers’ Association. He lives in Warsaw.