28 February 2013 The meeting with Małgorzata Szejnert to be hosted by Mariusz Szczygieł

The 14th meeting in the Get The Master series organised by the Znak Publishing House will take place on the 6th of March (Wednesday), in the Kijów.Centrum Cinema in Krakow, at 6 p.m.. This time the MC’s role will be assumed by Małgorzata Szejnert – journalist, author of several books, including Czarny ogród [The Black Garden] (2007), Wyspa klucz [Key Island] (2009), Dom żółwia. Zanzibar [The House of the Turtle. Zanzibar] (2011) and Śród żywych duchów [Among Living Ghosts] (2012) and a two time finalist of the Nike Literary Award competition. The meeting is inspired by her latest book : My, właściciele Teksasu. Reportaże z PRL-u [We, the Texas Owners. Reportages from the People’s Republic of Poland]. Other guests will include Magdalena Grzebałkowska and Aleksandra Klich, and the meeting will be hosted by Mariusz Szczygieł. As you may remember, Mariusz Szczygieł took part in the first Conrad Festival.

‘In the 1970s, a part of Texas could have become Polish property. In anticipation of the inheritance left by the hero who had died in America for your freedom and ours, we could build Texas only to the extent of our own capabilities from this side of the Iron Curtain. Małgorzata Szejnert writes about shop assistants from the Supersam self-service shop, workers from the Ursus factory, the main architect of the island of happiness and many other ordinary-extraordinary heroes of the People’s Republic of Poland. She tells stories of dreams and ambitions, of daily struggles and hard work. The journalist presents people who did not give up their aspirations even under the least favourable circumstances. She sketches a multidimensional panorama of the People's Republic of Poland out of inconspicuous events and minor situations. We, The Texas Owners catches the Polish reality of the previous epoch in the act, without present-day evaluations and stereotypes. Is that reality closer to cult Polish films such as: The Teddy Bear, Interrogation or Man Of Marble? Being read today, Małgorzata Szejnert’s reportages bring surprising answers.’ (www.znak.com.pl)

Get The Master is an offer of meetings organised by the Znak Publishing House since 2007. Such a provoking title is not coincidental. The aim of this series is to cause the Masters to come down from their pedestal, to invite them to an inspiring exchange of thoughts and sometimes to provoke them into taking part in an intellectual happening.

Participation in the meeting with Małgorzata Szejnert is by invitation only:, they can be picked up from Monday, the 25th of February in the Znak Bookshop (ul. Sławkowska 1) and the box office of the Kijów.Centrum Cinema (Al. Krasińskiego 34).