Anthologist-Preface: Dorota Jedras
Translator: Lara Unuk
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Tadeusz Dąbrowski, Barbara Klicka, Szczepan Kopyt, Jakub Kornhauser, Natalia Malek, Tomasz Bąk, Justyna Bargielska, Martyna Buliżańska, Jacek Dehnel, Maciej Robert, Krzysztof Siwczyk, Szymon Słomczyński, Julia Fiedorczuk.
Find the book here
The state of contemporary poetry in Poland is in all likelihood the same as in other countries in Europe. If you ask an average Pole what they know about contemporary Polish poetry, the answer would probably include one of the three famous names: Szymborska, Milosz, Herbert. Needless to say, knowing all three of these names is an achievement on its own. Those who went to high school or read newspapers in 1996, the year when Szymborska won the Nobel Prize, will maybe remember that she wrote a poem about a cat in an empty apartment. Other poems by Milosz or Herbert wouldn’t come to mind so easily. The vast majority of Poles seem to believe that there was no poetry after Szymborska. It may sometimes surprise them to see a poem written on a wall or bus stop, or when instead of a ticket by a policeman, they are given a scrap of paper that contains a poem. These activities, and many more besides, take place in the framework of various poetry festivals. In all probability, however, this crowd probably won’t bother to gain more insight on the subject of poetry. Poetry can only be addressed to the chosen few, to the enthusiasts. Still, it manages to exist. And it’s also at a really high level.
Unfortunately, even among those interested in culture or, to narrow it down even further, in literature in general, only a very small percentage of them are interested in poetry. Although this peripheral position of poetry doesn’t help things, it’s at the same time the most attractive and charming thing about it. Poetry never had a mass readership. Even when poetry books by Nobel laureates sold just a little more, this only happened because people though it necessary to have such books in their homes, and not because they actually had to read them. Some people humorously claim that Poland has more people writing poetry than actually reading it. It is difficult to estimate a specific number of poetry readers, although if there are approximately 500 to 800 Polish poetry books published each year, their readership certainly isn’t any larger than that. What’s more, those who do read poetry can’t catch up with reading every poetry book that is published. Nevertheless, the large number of poetry books gives all readers the opportunity to find something in Polish poetry that is suitable for their tastes, in terms of both content and style.
To recap: the number of readers is very small, and those who desire to find out more about contemporary Polish poetry have a hard time accessing it, especially if they live outside the big cities. It is difficult to find poetry books in bookstore chains, or even in public libraries, where poetry selections are usually limited to books by the few famous Polish poets and foreign poetry. Finding even a few samples of contemporary poetry is a great accomplishment in itself. To clarify things, I refer to poets whose works have been officially published, because the Internet is ripe with “poems”, which are easily available, but the subject of their value is rather open to discussion. Things are much better in the big cities, where small bookstores still sell poetry and readers can easily find literary magazines dealing with this genre. Poetry is not sold in large bookstores, because no major publishing houses take up poetry, while smaller publishing houses rely on selling books to bookstore chains in order to ensure their financial survival. The publication series at WBPiCAK (formerly the Public Library of Poznań), which promotes contemporary poetry, has done much to support poetry, and the same is also true for publishers such as a5, Biuro Literackie, halart and others besides, who have been longtime supporters of poetry and promote young poets. Publishers are also responsible for the quality of published poetry books. It is a commonly accepted fact that a volume of poetry is something more than a typical book of fiction. In addition, poetry book publications also feature graphic design of a higher caliber. In terms of quality, poetry books definitely stand out.
As a consequence, poetry is bound to remain on the fringes of Polish culture, yet it is in that very position that it manages to constantly grow, and from that position it sometimes ventures out into the limelight, even if only briefly. This is usually on the occasion of various literary awards and poetry festivals.
Festivals allow poets the opportunity to have their names appear on the newspapers, or even to be heard on TV, while laureates can also have a poem of theirs mentioned in some article or other.
Only a handful of awards, such as the “Nike” literary award, the “Paszport Polityki” award, maybe even the Wisława Szymborska Award, are capable of appearing in mass media and making the laureates’ names, maybe also the nominees’ names, visible to the public. All other awards and prizes, including perhaps the Kościelski award, which is a highly-esteemed award in Polish literary circles, don’t amount to much to the average Pole.
The “Nike” award, which is presented since 1997, is a literary award for the book of the year. Its nomination alone is considered a big deal for writers. This award originally intended to promote Polish novels, yet a growing number of poets are featured among its nominees and laureates. The “Paszport Polityki” is yet another distinguished award that is heavily promoted by mass media. Is has been presented since 1993 to six categories, one of which is literature. Thus, prose and poetry once again find themselves competing against each other. Since 2013, the Wisława Szymborska Foundation presents its own award for the best poetry book. This award became highly valued in the Polish literary world almost as soon as it was first instituted.
However, one award which hasn’t gained much publicity, yet it is highly respected among writers and critics, is the award of the Kościelski Foundation, which is presented since 1962. This award included authors of prose and poets among its laureates. There is also another exceptional prize, the “Jacek Bierezin” Polish Nationwide Poetry Contest, which is presented to debuting poets and its winners see their debut poetry collection published as reward for their success. Winning this award is regarded as a very important beginning for a literary career, as well as a good indication of a writer’s future. There are other awards which are also worth mentioning. One of them is the Wrocław Silesius Poetry Award, which is presented annually since 2008 during the Literary Port of Wrocław festival (Festival Literacki “Port Literacki Wrocław”). This award is funded by the eponymous city and is given in three categories: lifetime achievement, best debut in poetry and best book of the year. Gdynia also presents its own literary award during the Miasto Słowa festival (City of the Word festival). The city of Poznań and Adam Mickiewicz University also give their own award in two categories: lifetime achievement and writers aged up to 35 years. All awards and prizes mentioned above are merely a small part of the total awards presented on an annual basis. Other cities also present their own awards, not to mention that there also many prizes named after important figures from the history of Polish literature, such as the Kamil Baczyński award, the Rafał Wojaczek award and the Halina Poświatowska award.
Although literary awards are capable of helping poets, they don’t do much to expand the readership of poetry. There are some who claim that Poles just don’t know how to read poems. As one of our poets once said, buying poetry books can even be regarded as a sign of snobbism. It’s much easier to listen to a poem recited in one of the poetry festivals. I already mentioned the Literary Port of Wrocław festival and Gdynia’s Miasto Słowa festival – however, there are many more festivals and events taking place every year and attracting poets and poetry readers in various locations in Poland. The city of Poznań organizes the “Poets’ Poznań” festival, Lublin has its own “City of Poetry” festival, and Gdansk hosts the “European Poetry of Freedom” festival, which also presents the eponymous award. In addition, there are many events taking place in Poland each year on May 21st each year, on the occasion of the World Poetry Day.
Be that as it may, one initiative that truly gives all Polish people the opportunity to read contemporary Polish poetry, all for free, is the Wolne lektury e-library that was launched by the Modern Poland Foundation (Fundacja Nowiczesna Polska). This e-library has been online since September 2007 and offers more than 5,500 books, e-books and audiobooks under free licenses, allowing readers to freely read, listen, download and share the works from the e-library, and the only requirement is access to the Internet.
Contemporary Polish poetry was first included in collection of the e-library in 2017. It was initially decided to upload 20 poetry books, which had already been published in the traditional printed format, but due to their limited print run, they were essentially unavailable for readers. A special committee was assigned the task of selecting the poets who would be featured in this project. It was fortunate that this idea didn’t end with the first 20 volumes, and in late 2018, more poetry books were uploaded in the e-library. Some of the poets featured in the e-library are also featured in this anthology as well.
When I was initially asked to select poets for this anthology, my first thought was that I was given an impossible task. The publisher and I jointly attempted to establish several criteria and agree on a basis for our selection. Needless to say, all this changed during the process of the actual selection. In the end, due to the fact that the term “young poets” is very vague, we decided that the main restriction would concern the age of our poets; therefore, you won’t find in this anthology any poets born earlier than 1975. I attempted to develop a sample of poetry that would be indicative of exactly what is going on in contemporary poetry and demonstrate the entire range of its diversity at the same time.
I already said before that poetry lies on the fringes of Polish culture, and that there aren’t many people involved in this genre. Unfortunately, this limited group of poets, readers and critics is further divided into even smaller groups, and this situation was described by Katarzyna Janowska in an article published in Polityka magazine. Allow me to quote her, because even though her article was published fifteen years ago (30.06.2005), her words still ring true to this day: “Contemporary Polish poetry is formed by a “league” of groups, where one group cares nothing about what the other group is doing. A creator regarded as exceptional by one group can be ridiculed by one of the other groups and be thrown in the trash without pity. The “soil” of contemporary Polish poetry seems different if seen from the perspectives of Krakow, Wrocław, Warsaw or Poznań”. Although, even from this point of view, Poland doesn’t seem all that different from other countries, this division creates a whole set of problems when you have to select poets who will serve as representatives of contemporary Polish poetry in another country. To that end, I tried to choose artists who composed their poetry in different styles and focused on different subjects, without taking into account other factors such as the publishing houses they work with, the cities from which they come or the critics who promote them. In addition, I decided to give Greek readers the opportunity to become acquainted with young poets who already have a number of published books, as well as young poets who may be at the beginning of their poetic careers, yet their works have already been the subject of discussion in the literary milieu of Poland.
I am well aware that there are at least thirteen more poets who are also worthy of a spot in this anthology, but the rules of this publication were very strict, and I was unable to include them in my selection. I hope that their poetry will someday be published in Greece, and I wholeheartedly wish them so. The same applies to all poets born before 1975, who are longtime favorites of Polish readers, yet still wait for their poems to be translated into Greek.
As far as the selection of poems is concerned, I decided that no one else but the poets themselves should be entitled to select which poems would introduce them to Greek readers, and for that reason, I allowed them to make their own selections. I suggested they choose poems from different books as a way to demonstrate the evolution of their work – however, I had no objection if the poets insisted on material from one or two particular books. If I was to receive more material from a single poet, the final selection would be up to Lara Unuk, the translator of the anthology.
This is how the Anthology of Young Polish Poets came to be, and I believe that it faithfully depicts the diversity of forms, styles and topics found in contemporary Polish poetry. I hope that Greek readers will appreciate it and become interested in Polish poetry and literature in general. Enjoy the book.
Dorota Jedras