Adam Zagajewski (Poland)
1945
Born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) Adam Zagajewski was relocated with this family to western Poland shortly after his birth. He spent much of his childhood in Gilwice in Silesia.
Zagajewski was an editor of the cultural weekly Student and wrote also for the dissident monthly Zapis before becoming a co-founder of the important "Generation of 1968" group called Teraz (Now). These activities resulted in a ban on his publications, forcing him to move, for a period, to Berlin—where he was awarded a DAAD scholarship—and, in 1982, to Paris. In 1974 he and fellow poet Julian Kornhauser won the Koscielski Award for a collection of essays they wrote together.
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His first collection of poetry, Komunikat(Announcement) was published in 1972, followed by the 1975 collection Sklepy mięsne (Meat Shops). Also in 1975 Zagajewski published a novel, Clepto, zimno (Warm and Cold). During this same period several of collections of poetry begin being published internationally, including the United States.
His move to Paris resulted in Letter: An Ode to Multiplicity (1983), Jechac do Lowowa (Traveling to Lwow, 1985) and Plótno (The Canvas, 1990). Books since that period include Ziemia ognista (The Fiery Land, 1994) and Pragnienie (Desire, 1999), Powrót(2003), Anteny (Antennas, 2005), and Niewidziaina ręka (2009).
Since 1988 Zagajewski has served as Visiting Associate Professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston, and currently teaches at the University of Chicago.
BOOKS OF POETRY
Komunikat (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1972); Sklepy mięsne (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1975); Letter: An Ode to Multiplicity (Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1983); Jechac do Lowowa (London: Aneks, 1985); Ziemia ognista (Poznan: a5, 1994); Pragnienie (Kraków: a5, 1999); Powrót(Kraków: Wydawn, Znak, 2003); Ateny (Kraków: Wydawn, Znak, 2005); Niewidziaina ręka (Kraków: Wydawn, Znak, 2009)
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS
Tremor: Selected Poems, trans. by Clare Cavanagh (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1985) Mysticism for Beginners, trans. by Clare Cavanagh (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997); Another Beauty, trans. by Clare Cavanagh (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000); Without End: New and Selected Poems, trans. by Clare Cavanagh (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003); Selected Poems, trans. by Clare Cavanagh (London: Faber and Faber, 2004); Eternal Enemies, trans. by Clare Cavanagh (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
For a selection of his poems and another biography, go here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/adam-zagajewski