guests

Jarosław Mikołajewski was born and lives in Warsaw. He is (feels like) a poet most times, as well as an essayist, a reportage writer, a translator, and a playwright, recently. He has written around a dozen of poetic books. As an author of reportage and essays, he is mostly interested in the Mediterranean (Wielki przypływ – Beata Pawlak award for reportage – on Lampedusa and the refugee crisis; and Terremoto – Nike award nomination). Rzymska komedia (Nike nomination) and Syrakuzańskie are examples of cultural reportage, or reportage essays. Czerwony śnieg na Etnie, written with Paweł Smoleński, is a collection of reportage from Sicily, soon to be published. Especially important for him personally are two reportage biographies: Sentymentalny portret Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego and Cień w cień – za cieniem Zuzanny Ginczanki (Teresa Torańska award nomination).

In his children’s books, he touches upon some difficult subjects: death (Kiedy kiedyś…), tolerance (O trzech pierścieniach), love (Kreska i Kropek). A special position is occupied by Wędrówka Nabu, a book about refugees and a girl from ‘out there’, looking for a safe home ‘here’. In 2020, the Arlekin theatre in Łódź staged its adaptation.

An important area of Mikołajewski’s work is (poetry) translation. He has published collections of poems by Eugenio Montale, Primo Levi, Cesare Pavese, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Salvatore Quasimodo, Alda Merini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sandro Penna, and two anthologies of 20^th century and contemporary Italian poetry (Radość rozbitków and W szczelinie między czuwaniem a snem). He is also the editor of a collection of Italian poetry (Austeria, Cracow).

Mikołajewski works at the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw, where he mostly guides school groups around the exhibition. The experience has translated into his book for children, Kuferek Adama Mickiewicza.

Mikołajewski’s new venture is drama. Two years ago, the Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw staged a performative reading of his Komórka, and in 2020, Wojciech Malajkat directed the radio play based on Mikołajewski’s drama Wyjście w wiadomym celu do drugiej pokoju in which he played the main role. The Polonia theatre has for the first time staged his Aleja Zasłużonych, directed by Krystyna Janda.

pic. Bogna Kociumbas/Sopot by the Book Festival