Piotr Matywiecki

Polish poet, essayist, translator. He publishes his texts quite rarely, but he prepares every book very carefully. Until now, the following collections of his poems have been published: Podróż (Travel) (1975), Struna (The String) (1979), Płanetnik i śmierć (An Air Ghost and Death) (1981), Anioł z ognia i lodu (An Angel of Fire and Ice) (1986), Światło jednomyślne (The Unanimous Light) (1990), Nawrócenie Maxa Jacoba (The Conversion of Max Jacob) (1994), Poematy biblijne (Bible Poems) (1995), Improwizacje i światy (Improvisations and Worlds) (1997), Zwyczajna, symboliczna, prawdziwa (Ordinary, Symbolic, True) (1998), Powietrze i czerń (The Air and Blackness) (2009). In 2006 his book Ta chmura powraca (This Cloud Returns) was nominated for the finale of the Nike Award. His literary output can be assigned to the classicistic trend of contemporary Polish poetry. The issues raised by him, such as transitoriness, melancholy or the mystery of existence and death are typical of reflexive & philosophical poetry. He prepared an anthology of Polish poetry Od początku (From the Beginning) (1997), which aroused considerable interest. However, the most important work in Matywiecki’s literary output is still the extensive (500-page) book of essays Kamień graniczny (The Border Stone) (1994), which was widely discussed and honoured with awards such as the prestigious PEN-Club award. In this book, the author deals specifically with the subject of the Holocaust and the suffering of innocent Jews. His book Twarz Tuwima (Tuwim’s Face) won the Literary Prize “Gdynia 2008” in the category of essays. At the 2nd Conrad Festival he will take part in a meeting devoted to Isaak Cylkow in the High Synagogue – 5 November (Friday), 4.00 pm.