Zośka Papużanka

(b. 1978) – a writer and theatrologist.

She graduated in Theatrology from the Jagiellonian University, defending her PhD on the reception of Federico García Lorca at the Pedagogical University in Krakow. She works as a Polish language teacher and lives in Krakow.

She debuted in 2012 with her novel ‘Szopka’ (Nativity Scene), which earned her a nomination for the Nike Literary Award and the Polityka Passport. Her subsequent books – ‘On’ (He, 2016), ‘Świat dla ciebie zrobiłem’ (I Made the World for You, 2017), ‘Przez’ (Through, 2020), ‘Kąkol’ (Corncockle, 2021) and ‘Żaden koniec’ (No End, 2023) – solidified her position on the Polish literary scene. Her novel He was again nominated for a Polityka Passport, as well as the Gryfia Award, and in 2023 she received the UNESCO Krakow City of Literature Award.

Papużanka’s prose focuses on the experience of everyday life, family relations, childhood and growing up. She examines language with unusual perceptiveness, as reflections of the protagonists’ emotions, stereotypes and habits. Her style joins careful observation with irony, as well as tenderness for human weaknesses. The human being is central to her work – caught up in relationships, emotions and memories, but also capable of stepping back from themselves.

Papużanka’s narrative often uses a memory perspective, joining various times and emotions into one. In Nativity Scene she explores the space of the family home, and in He she writes with psychological depth about toxic love from the protagonists’ perspectives. In Corncockle, she explores the perspective of a child torn between quarrelling parents. This is literature where ordinary situations are exposed with all their absurdity and gravity.

Papużanka also works in theatre; she has collaborated on performative and literary projects. She has also written special texts for theatres (for Parawan and Figur Theatres, among others), and a solo show, ‘Kocham Bałtyk’ (I Love the Baltic), staged by Agnieszka Przepiórska-Frankiewicz. In 2020, for Łaźnia Nowa Theatre, she created the Internet series ‘W związku z zaistniałą sytuacją’ (Owing to the Situation at Present), for which she received the Stanisław Wyspiański Theatre Award.

Her short stories, essays and reviews have appeared in Tygodnik Powszechny, Nowe Książki, Radar, Gazeta Wyborcza and New Eastern Europe. In Zośka Papużanka’s work, life and literature weave in an organic fashion – observations of the world signify an attempt to understand it and to record it in words.