The publication of Kolonies in 2006 put Tomasz Różycki at the forefront of Polish poetry. Różycki is a poet from peripheral Poland, a place of myths and mystery where other figures such as Adam Zagajewski and Bruno Schulz can be found. Różycki will present the Dutch version of his pivotal work, together with translator Alexandre Popowycz, on April 27, 2019 at the Poëziecentrum in Ghent. The presentation will be introduced by Kris Van Heuckelom, prof. dr. of Slavistics and Polish Literature.
About “Kolonies”
Różycki’s Kolonies offers – also in Dutch, thanks to the most excellent translation by Alexandre Popowycz – a haunting and breathtaking reading experience. The celebrated Polish poet, author and columnist writes about the reality of displacement in the aftermath of the Second World War. Through cyclical, repetitive poems, he takes the reader on a journey through time and space, seemingly pouring the colonial aspirations of the interbellum into a literary form.
About Tomasz Różycki
Tomasz Różycki (1970) studied Roman Languages and worked as a French teacher before rising to fame as a poet, columnist and translator (e.g. Mallarmé’s Un Coup de dés). Kolonies was nominated in 2007 for the notable Polish NIKE Prize for Literature. Its English translation was in turn nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (UK), and won the Northern California Book Award for Poetry in Translation (USA). Other collections of his poems are Vaterland (1997), Anima (1999), Świat i antyświat (2003) and the praised Dwanaście stacji (2004).
About Alexandre Popowycz
Alexandre Popowycz (1981) publishes poems since 2010 in e.g. Het Liegend Konijn and Poëziekrant. When living in Kinshasa, he was a poetry blogger for MO*. He was an active member of the Gentse Collectief van Poëzievertalers (a collective of translators of poetry from the Ghent University) for more than ten years. Together with Hubert De Vogelaere, he translated Olga Sedakova’s Chinese reis en andere gedichten (Amsterdam, 2015) from Russian to Dutch.
