Foreign Guests - POLAND

LIDIA AMEJKO

POLAND [*1955]
15. 5. | 12.00 | Chamber Hall
15. 5. | 13.00 | stand S 201
Writer and playwright who lives in Wrocław. Gained renown with the play Farrago (1996), which was later filmed by Polish Television. Lidia Amejko is the author of several collections of short stories, the best known of which, Głośne historie (2003), is about to be published in Czech in the translation.
[ photo Danae Ribibitsch

ŁUKASZ DĘBSKI

POLAND [*1975]
15. 5. | 14.00 | pavilon „Svět knihy dětem“ (dílna)
The successful author of short stories and a series of guides to the countries of Europe for young readers. Café Szafé, a volume of short stories, was translated into Czech and published in 2009, before this year’s book fair a collection of his poems for children will be published by Barrister & Principal, translated into Czech. Łukasz Dębski will appear in Prague together with his wife Anna Kaszuba- -Debska (b. 1975), artist and illustrator of more than one hundred books for children.
[ photo archiv autora

AGNIESZKA DROTKIEWICZ

POLAND [*1981]
14. 5. | 19.00 | Café & Bookstore Fra
Drotkiewicz tends to be classified as a feminist author, but “female” would be a more appropriate description. Her debut work Paris London Dachau (2004), the monologic confession on consumer society of the author’s alter ego is interspersed with quotations and allusions to pop culture. photo Elżbieta Lempp
[ photo Elżbieta Lempp

SYLWIA CHUTNIK

POLAND [*1979]
14. 5. | 19.00 | Café & Bookstore Fra
The “angry, engagée young woman” of contemporary Polish literature, Sylwia Chutnik is a social activist, campaigner for the rights of women and mothers and a graduate in gender studies. A Czech edition of her 2008 debut book Kieszonkowy atlas kobiet/ A Pocket Atlas of Women – winner of the prestigious Paszport Polityki prize – is in preparation.
[ photo Elżbieta Lempp

KRZYSZTOF KOEHLER

POLAND [*1963]
13. 5. | 16.00 | Literary Hall
15. 5. | 17.00 | Literary café
Poet and literary historian of the “bruLion generation” (bruLion was an avant-garde magazine in the late 1980s and 1990s), is a spokesman for the “classicist” stream of young Polish poetry. As a literary historian he is a specialist in the Polish Baroque. Since 2006 he has been controller of TVP Kultura, POLAND’s public-service television channel for culture. His poems appear in Czech
[ photo Archiv www.eteatr.pl

ISTVÁN KOVÁCS

MAĎARSKO [*1945]
14. 5. | 17.00 | Literary Hall
Hungarian historian, Polish scholar, translator and former consul general in POLAND, István Kovács works at the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is the author of many publications on the modern history of POLAND and Polish-Hungarian relations. At the book fair he will be introducing his book The Miracle by the Vistula and the Baltic. [ photo Orsolya Kovács
[ photo Orsolya Kovács

MAREK KRAJEWSKI

POLAND [*1966]
15. 5. | 11.00 | Hall "Growing with the Book"
15. 5. | 12.00 | stand S 201
The king of the Polish detective novel and one of Wrocław’s best-known citizens. To date his books have been translated into fourteen languages. He is the creator of Eberhard Mock – a police detective in the pre-war German city of Breslau (today Wrocław in POLAND). Of the six novels in this series, two – Death in Breslau (2008) and The End of the World in Breslau
[ photo FILIP ITOITO & SOLAREWICZ

WOJCIECH KUCZOK

POLAND [*1972]
13. 5. | 15.00 | Literary café
13. 5. | 16.00 | stand S 201
Amateur speleologist and increasingly successful film screenplay writer, Wojciech Kuczok is one of the “lower prosperity generation” which includes Michał Witkowski and Dorota Masłowska. His first novel (or anti-novel) Gnój/Dung is published in the Czech translation of Barbora Gregorová; it is composed of fragmentary memories of childhood that contain trauma, concealed hatred and unwitting psychological dependency. The book’s publication is one of the most important literary events in POLAND in the past decade, and in 2004 it brought its author POLAND’s prestigious NIKE literature prize. In the same year a film version of Dung was released as Pregi/Welts, this won the prize for
[ photo dziennik.pl

PAWEŁ LISICKI

POLAND [*1966]
13. 5. | 17.00 | Great Hall
Paweł Lisicki is a journalist and philosopher who since 2006 has been editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita, POLAND’s biggest quality daily. He has written four collections of theological and philosophical essays, two stage plays and a political thriller. In 1988 Paweł Lisicki received the Andrzej Kijowski Award for his essay collection
[ photo achiv www.efakt.cz

DOROTA MASŁOWSKA

POLAND [*1983]
15. 5. | 16.00 | Author's Hall
15. 5. | 17.00 | stand S 201
Dorota Masłowska is the wunderkind of contemporary Polish literature, she is a laureate of the prestigious prizes the Paszport Polityki (for Wojna POLAND- ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną) and the Nike (for Paw królovej). Her two most recent works, the stage plays Dwoje biednych Rumunów mówiących po polsku/A Couple of Poor, Polish-speaking Romanians and Między nami dobrze jest/Things are Good Between Us, are about to be published in Czech by FRA and Nakonari publishers in an anthology of contemporary Polish drama.
[ photo Elżbieta Lempp

ANDRZEJ PILIPIUK

POLAND [*1974]
16. 5. | 11.00 | Literary café
16. 5. | 12.00 | stand S 201
One of POLAND’s leading authors of fantasy fiction whose work is marked by its humour, Andrzej Pilipiuk trained as an archaeologist. He is the creator of the legendary Jakub Wędrowycz, producer of moonshine and exorcist – an autodidact who, in remote little Wojsławice, fights with vampires. For the novella Cousins (2005) he received the Janusz A. Zajdel Award (the most prestigious in Polish SF and fantasy fiction). Laser Books will be introducing at the fair the fifth book in the Jakub Wędrowycz series in Czech. [ photo Wyd. WAB
[ photo Wyd. WAB

JANUSZ RUDNICKI

POLAND [*1956]
15. 5. | 12.00 | Chamber Hall
15. 5. | 13.00 | stand S 301
He is considered one of the major Polish contemporary prose writers, acclaimed by the critics as the master of grotesque and daring literary provocations. He left POLAND in 1983 for political reasons and currently shares his time between Hamburg and Prague. His book Chodźcie, idziemy was shortlisted for Polish Nike Prize and European Literary Prize in 2008. In Czech he published a book of short stories Smrt českého psa.
[ photo archiv autora

ANDRZEJ SAPKOWSKI

POLAND [*1948]
15. 5. | 13.00 | Great Hall
15. 5. | 14.00 | stand S 201
“The uncrowned king of Polish fantasy fiction”, Andrzej Sapkowski is an Economics graduate. His novels about Geralt the “Witcher” have achieved enormous popularity. He is the only writer to have won the Janusz Zajdel Award – POLAND’s most prestigious sci-fi and fantasy prize – five times. A Czech translation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s new book Viper, which takes us to war-torn Afghanistan, is in preparation; passages from this work will be given a very first reading at this year’s Book World.
[ photo Elżbieta Lempp

WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA

POLAND [*1923]
14. 5. | 16.00 | Great Hall
Poet of gentle irony and philosophical intensity, Wisława Szymborska won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. Last year the latest collections appeared in Czech as Okamžik. Dvojtečka. Tady. Wisława Szymborska addresses themes which are at first sight ordinary and commonplace, but it is in the poet’s ability to turn a new, fresh eye on her immediate surroundings, interpersonal relations and seemingly obvious problems.
[ photo Elżbieta Lempp

EUGENIUSZ TKACZYSZYN-DYCKI

POLAND [*1962]
15. 5. | 17.00 | Literary café
Last year Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki became only the third poet to win the Nike, POLAND’s most prestigious literature prize, for his collection Piosenka o zależnościach i uzależnieniach. Tkaczyszyn-Dycki draws on the tradition and imagery of the Polish Baroque. His verse is heavily autobiographical, returning often to the poet’s “small homeland” in the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands.
[ photo Elżbieta Lempp

OLGA TOKARCZUK

POLAND [*1962]
14. 5. | 14.00 | stand S 201
14. 5. | 15.00 | Chamber Hall
Olga Tokarczuk is perhaps the contemporary Polish writer of prose whom the Czech Republic knows best; she is also one of the most important literary finds of the1990s. Her books enjoy great popularity at home and abroad, not only for their general accessibility but also for their philosophical and mythological reach. Her novel Bieguni [Runners] received the 2008 main NIKE award, POLAND’s most prestigious literary prize. Motifs – somewhat surprisingly in the guise of the horror-cum-detective novel – are to be found in her latest work Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych [Drive Your Plough over the Bones of the Dead], passages from which will be presented in Czech at Book World.
[ photo archiv autora

BRONISŁAW WILDSTEIN

POLAND [*1952]
13. 5. | 17.00 | Great Hall
14. 5. | 18.00 | Literary café
Bronisław Wildstein is a former dissident and founder, in 1977, of the Student Committee of Solidarity – one of the first organizations of opposition in POLAND. Since 1989 he has been one of POLAND’s best-known journalists. From 2006 to 2007 he was director-general of POLAND’s state-owned television company. He works currently for the daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita and presents his own television programme. He is also author of many novels which address contemporary social and political issues. His latest work of literature, the novel Dolina Nicości/ Valley of Nothingness (2008) was awarded the prestigious Jozef Mackiewicz Literary Prize.
[ photo archiv autora

MICHAŁ WITKOWSKI

POLAND [*1975]
15. 5. | 15.00 | Chamber Hall
15. 5. | 16.00 | stand S 201
Provocative, award-winning prose writer of the younger generation who rose to fame both by his highly individual public appearances and his novel Lubiewo/Lovetown, which was awarded the prestigious Paszport Polityki and was nominated for the Nike Prize. Lubiewo has been described as the first Polish gay novel. A Czech translation of another of Witkowski’s successful novels, Barbara Radziwiłłówna z Jaworzna-Szczakowej, an ironic “historical study” of early Polish capitalism, is currently in preparation; extracts from the novel will be heard for the first time at BookWorld.
[ photo Marcin Łobaczewski