Maria Jastrzębska is a Polish-born poet based in the UK – she came to England as a small child after her family had escaped from Poland. Her work has appeared in The New British Poetry (Paladin, 1988), Parents: An Anthology of Poems by Women Writers (Enitharmon, 2000) and Images of Women (Arrowhead, 2006). Her most recent collection is At The Library of Memories. The poet says “I’ve always been concerned with borders and boundaries: between countries, cultures, languages, between social and sexual identities, health and illness.”
Jastrzębska’s poetry has been translated to Japanese, Finnish and Slovenian, which reflects the variety of the poet’s writing.
Ziemowit is a journalist and prose writer living in Poland. He is coming to the festival from Krakow, Unesco City of Literature, at the invitation of the British Council. His main subject of interest is Central and Eastern Europe. In 2013, he published his fictionalized ‘gonzo’ style reportage on Ukraine, Come Mordor and eat us. In the book, the Polish perception of Ukraine is deconstructed – Poland and ‘the country in the East’ seem much more alike than thought – in fact, western Ukraine does resemble Poland. As Szczerek puts it, “it’s just like Poland, only more irritating.”
Maria and Ziemowit will talk about growing up, migration, travelling and the culture and writers who have influenced them, as well as their own passions and interests. They will also read excerpts from their latest works in both English and Polish. The event is scheduled for 3:30-5pm on Sunday 29 June.
Afterwards, from 5:30 to 6:30pm, William Brodrick and A. M. Bakalar will talk to The Times journalist Liz Hoggard about their novels featuring Poles: The Day of the Lie and Madame Mephisto, as well as Polish literature, culture and history. Brodrick is the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for his novel A Whispered Name. His novel The Sixth Lamentation was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club.
The Day of the Lie investigates a story of an underground resistance group member in Communist Poland, Roza Mojewska.
'What fascinated me is that [the underground press] was essentially an activity that was done by women. We've got the pictures [in the history books] of these big, strapping, moustachioed men taking on the communists when, in actual fact, after they were all arrested, when martial law was imposed [by the Polish government in the early 1980s], it was dedicated women that kept the newspapers going.''
A.M. Bakalar was born and raised in Poland. Madame Mephisto is her first novel – she tells the story of a young Polish immigrant in the UK, and her struggle with adjusting to the cultural differences between the UK and Poland and establishing her own identity in the two-faced reality she has created for herself. The book was among the nominations for the Guardian's First Book Award. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian and the International New York Times. She was the editor of Litro Magazine Polish Issue.
Both events will take place in the Elizabeth suite of the Orwell Hotel, Felixstowe, Suffolk, UK. For more information, visit the festival website.
Sources: www.pighog.co.uk, ambakalar.com, Ed. Kasia Dolato, 23.06.2014