Janusz Rudnicki

Polish prose writer and essayist. A Solidarity activist, interned after the introduction of martial law in Poland, emigrated in 1983. Debuted with a short story in the Berlin-based Archipelag. Studied Slavonic and Germanic studies in Hamburg. Rudnicki regularly collaborates with the Twórczość monthly, in which he publishes Listy z Hamburga, and recently also with Machina. He published volumes of prose Można żyć (1992, S. Piętak Award for the best debut), Cholerny świat (1994), Tam i z powrotem po tęczy (1997), Męka kartoflana (1st edition: 2000). In 2004, he published Mój Wehrmacht, in 2007 – Chodźcie, idziemy, nominated for the NIKE Award and European Prize for Literature. The volume Śmierć czeskiego psa (2009) reached the final of the NIKE Award competition and was also nominated for the GDYNIA award, the Gwarancja Kultury awarded by TVP Kultura and the ANGELUS Central European Literature Award. “Rudnicki's short stories are strikingly (!) funny, melancholic and clever. They shine with the Polish of the old masters: Białoszewski, Gombrowicz and Hłasko. The author draws doodles on the absurdity of existence with a firm hand, swears with confidence and whistles the romantic words”, Kazimiera Szczuka wrote on Śmierć czeskiego psa. In the Polityka monthly, Robert Ostaszewski described his writing as “flirting with the reader by means of an excellent, vivid and truculent style, freely moving between registers and masterfully mixing sophisticated metaphors with boorishness. The basic elements of his prose (grotesque, irony, humour, distance, provocation…) merge into ideally constructed and buttoned-up texts. In short: Rudnicki is a real master of short prose forms”. Rudnicki was the guest of Tadeusz Sławek at the Pałac pod Baranami on the last day of the festival. Picture: Vera Vytrisalova