Adam Zagajewski (21 June 1945 – 21 March 2021) was a Polish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

, and

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award, the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, and the 2018 Golden Wreath of Poetry at the

Struga Poetry Evenings Struga Poetry Evenings (SPE) (, СВП; tr. ''Struški večeri na poezijata'', ''SVP'') is an international poetry festival held annually in Struga, North Macedonia. During the several decades of its existence, the Festival has awarded its most ...

. He was considered a leading poet of the Generation of '68, or Polish New Wave (Polish: ''Nowa fala''), and one of Poland's most prominent contemporary poets.

Life and career

Adam Zagajewski was born in 1945 in

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

(now Lviv, Ukraine). His father was Tadeusz Zagajewski and his mother was Ludwika Zagajewska, ''née'' Turska. The Zagajewski family was expelled from Lwów to central Poland the same year as part of Soviet post-World War II policy. They moved to the city of

Gliwice Gliwice (; , ) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder River, Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional capital ...

where he graduated from Andrzej Strug V High School (''V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Andrzeja Struga''). Subsequently, he studied

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. He later taught philosophy at the AGH University of Science and Technology. In 1967, he made his poetic debut with ''Music'', a poem published in ''Życie Literackie'' magazine. He published his works as well as reviews in such magazines as ''Odra'' (1969–1976) and ''Twórczość'' (1969, 1971–1973). During this time, he became involved in the ''New Wave'' (''Nowa fala'') literary movement also known as the Generation of '68'. The aim of the group was "standing up against the falsifications of reality and the appropriation of language by communist ideology and propaganda". After signing the Letter of 59 his works were banned by

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

authorities in Poland. In 1978, he was one of the founders and first lecturers of the Scientific Training Association. In 1982, he emigrated to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, but in 2002 he returned to Poland together with his wife Maja Wodecka, and resided in

. He was a member of the Polish Writers' Association. His literary works have received international recognition and have been translated into many languages. Joachim T. Baer, a reviewer from ''

World Literature Today ''World Literature Today'' (''WLT'') is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The magazine's stated goal is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book ...

'' pointed out that the recurring themes in Zagajewski's poetry include "the night, dreams, history and time, infinity and eternity, silence and death."

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín ( , ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, ''The South (novel), The South'', was published in 1990. ''The Blackwater Lightship'' was short ...

notes that in his best poems "he has succeeded in making the space of the imagination connect with experience; things seen and heard and remembered in all their limits and sorrow and relished joy have the same power for him as things conjured." American poet Robert Pinsky observes that Zagajewski's poems are "about the presence of the past in ordinary life: history not as a chronicle of the dead … but as an immense, sometimes subtle force inhering in what people see and feel every day – and in the ways we see and feel". His poem ''"Try To Praise The Mutilated World"'' became famous when it was printed in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' shortly after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. Zagajewski used to teach poetry workshops as a visiting lecturer at the School of Literature and Arts at the

in Kraków as well as a

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

course at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

in the United States. He was a faculty member at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and a member of its Committee on Social Thought. He taught two classes, one of which is on fellow Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. Commenting on the occasion of his death,

Olga Tokarczuk Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk (; born 29 January 1962) is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland. In 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Pri ...

remarked that he was an appreciated teacher of poetry. Zagajewski died on 21 March 2021 at the age of 75 in Krakow.

Awards

He was awarded the Bronze Cross of Merit, and twice received the Officer's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

. In 1992, he received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. He won the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, considered a forerunner to the Nobel Prize in Literature, and is the second Polish writer to be awarded, after Czeslaw Milosz. In 2015 he received the

Heinrich Mann Prize The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an essay prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then by the Academy of Arts, Berlin. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March, Heinrich ...

. In May 2016 he was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize of the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

. In the same year he received the Order of

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

and the (award of the Hungarian PEN Club) as well. In 2017 he was awarded The Princess of Asturias Award, "one of the most important awards in the Spanish-speaking world." In 2018 his collection of essays, ''Poezja dla początkujących'' (''Poetry for Beginners''), was nominated for the

Nike Award The Nike Literary Award (, pronounced ) is a literary prize awarded each year for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish and published the previous year. It is widely considered the most important award for Polish literatu ...

, Poland's top literary honor. In 2019, Zagajewski was awarded Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. In his lifetime, he was frequently mentioned as a potential

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

laureate.

Bibliography

Collections

Poetry

*''Komunikat''. Kraków, 1972. *''Sklepy mięsne''. Kraków, 1975. *''List. Oda do wielkości''. Paris, 1983. *''Jechać do Lwowa''. London, 1985. *''Plótno''. Paris, 1990. *''Ziemia ognista''. Poznan, 1994. *''Trzej aniołowie / Three Angels''. Kraków, 1998 (bilingual edition of selected poems). *''Pragnienie''. Kraków, 1999. *''Powrót''. Kraków, 2003. *''Anteny''. Kraków, 2005. *'' Unseen Hand'' (''Niewidzialna reka''). Kraków, 2009. *''Wiersze wybrane''. Kraków, 2010. *''Asymetria''. Kraków, 2014. *''Lotnisko w Amsterdamie / Airport in Amsterdam''. Kraków, 2016 (bilingual edition of selected poems). *''Prawdziwe życie''. Kraków, 2019.

Prose

*''Ciepło, zimno''. Warszawa, 1975. *''Słuch absolutny''. Kraków, 1979. *''Cienka kreska''. Kraków, 1983.

Essays

*''Świat nieprzedstawiony''. Kraków, 1974. *''Drugi oddech''. Kraków, 1978. *''Solidarność i samotność''. "Zeszyty literackie", 1986. *''Dwa miasta''. Paryż-Kraków, 1991. *'' Another Beauty'' (''W cudzym pięknie''). Poznań, 1998. *''Obrona żarliwosci''. Kraków, 2002. *''Poeta rozmawia z filozofem''. Warszawa, 2007. *''Lekka przesada''. Kraków, 2011. *''Poezja dla początkujących''. Warszawa, 2017. *''Substancja nieuporządkowana''. Kraków, 2019.

Books in English translation

Poetry

*''Tremor'' Translator Renata Gorczynski, Collins Harvill, 1987 *''Canvas'' Translators Renata Gorczynski, Benjamin Ivry, C. K. Williams, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994, * * *''Selected Poems'', Translator Clare Cavanagh, Faber & Faber, 2004, * *''Unseen Hand: Poems'' (2011) *
Asymmetry: Poems
'. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 20 November 2018. . *''True Life'', Translator Clare Cavanagh, 2023, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Essays

*''Solidarity, Solitude'', Ecco Press, 1990, * * * *
Slight Exaggeration: An Essay
'' Trans. Clare Cavanagh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 4 April 2017. .

Edited

*''Polish Writers on Writing'' ( Trinity University Press, 2007)

Critical studies and reviews

* * * * *. *

References

External links

Profile and poems by Adam Zagajewski at PoetryFoundation.org
at ''

Samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

''
Profile and poems by Adam Zagjewski at Poets.orgAdam Zagajewski
at culture.pl
Kannada translations of 5 Adam Zagajewski poems by S. Jayasrinivasa Rao at https://avadhimag.inProfile at Poetry InternationalInterview with Adam Zagagjewski
in '' Barcelona Metropolis Magazine'', Autumn, 2009
Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 1 May 2002.
(Audio, 70 mins) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zagajewski, Adam 1945 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Polish essayists 20th-century Polish male writers 20th-century Polish novelists 20th-century Polish poets 21st-century essayists 21st-century Polish male writers 21st-century Polish novelists 21st-century Polish poets Artist authors Heinrich Mann Prize winners Polish male essayists The New Yorker people Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta Polish male novelists Polish male poets Polish translators Recipients of the Bronze Cross of Merit (Poland) Recipients of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath laureates University of Chicago faculty University of Houston faculty Writers from Lviv People associated with Kultura (magazine) Polish recipients of the Legion of Honour

Life and career

Awards

Bibliography

Collections

Poetry

Prose

Essays

Books in English translation

Poetry

Essays

Edited

Critical studies and reviews

See also

References

External links