Andrzej Stasiuk, photo: Kamil Gubała
Andrzej Stasiuk is one of the leading lights of contemporary Polish literature. His work - primarily prose fiction and essays - examines the realities of life in Poland after 1989 while articulating a uniquely Central European perspective on the world, one marked by its ambivalent position between Western Europe and the periphery. He is the author of over 15 books of fiction, essays, and travel writing, including, in English: Fado (Dalkey Archive 2009), Nine (Harcourt 2007), Tales of Galicia (Twisted Spoon 2005), and The White Raven (Serpent's Tail 2001).
Born in Warsaw in 1960, Stasiuk was dismissed from secondary school, drifted through a succession of odd jobs, joined the Polish pacifist movement, and was drafted into the army, from which he deserted (as legend has it, in a tank) and spent a year and a half in prison as a result. His novel, The White Raven, was a best-seller and established him as one of post-communist Poland's most successful authors, and it is not without reason that he has been called the Polish answer to Jack Kerouac. Stasiuk lives in the Beskid mountains in southern Poland, where he and his wife, Monika Sznajderman, run the publishing house Czarne. This is his first appearance in the U.S.
On April 28, Stasiuk will join Mohsin Hamid, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Andrea Levy, Yiyun Li, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Sofi Oksanen, Atiq Rahimi, Salman Rushdie, Alberto Ruy-Sánchez, Patti Smith, and Miguel Syjuco in celebrating the official opening of the sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival. During the event entitled Readings from Around the Globe: Opening Night Extravaganza, the writers will read in their own languages - with an English translation projected on the screen behind them, so you can read along.
Two days later, on Friday, April 30, at 3:00 PM, Andrzej Stasiuk will take part in the discussion Utopia and Dystopia: Geographies of the Possible, with Jonathan Lethem, Inga Kuznetsova, and Eshkol Nevo, moderated by Bookforum Editor Albert Mobilio.
This discussion, also part of the 2010 PEN World Voices Festival, finds Stasiuk and other authors tackling one of the most pressing questions of all: Where do you want to live? Stasiuk, almost all of whose work involves some kind of reflection on place and on the character of society, may be especially well suited to answer this question. And his position as a writer of both novels and travelogues will no doubt give him an especially interesting perspective on the utopian imagination and the relationship of the novel to society.
- Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 8:00 AM
Readings from Around the Globe: Opening Night Extravaganza with Salman Rushdie, Patti Smith, Mohsin Hamid and others
Venue: 92nd Street Y, Unterberg Poetry Center
1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
Admission: $20; $15 PEN members, Poetry Center subscribers Tel: 212.415.5500, 212.868.4444, www.smarttix.com
- Friday, April 30, 2010, 3:00 PM
Utopia and Dystopia: Geographies of the Possible. A Discussion with Jonathan Lethem, Inga Kuznetsova, Eshkol Nevo, and Andrzej Stasiuk, moderated by Albert Mobilio
Venue: CUNY Graduate Center, Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), New York, NY
Admission: Free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis
Further, at the invitation of the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Andrzej Stasiuk will be giving a series of readings in three other cities in the U.S.: Bloomington, IN, (Monday, April 26), Charlottesville, VA, (Monday, May 3, and Tuesday, May 4), Chicago, IL, (Wednesday, May 5).
More details about Stasiuk's calendar in the US:
Polish Cultural InstituteSource:
www.polishculture-nyc.org