{"id":20178,"date":"2026-03-27T17:12:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=20178"},"modified":"2026-04-01T02:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T00:49:16","slug":"michal-witkowski-with-william-marti-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/03\/27\/michal-witkowski-with-william-marti-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Micha\u0142 Witkowski with William Martin \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S6E4 and all video recordings are available on our YouTube<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature<\/strong> is a video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host David A. Goldfarb<\/strong> will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature. More about the Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature series<\/a><\/strong> and the timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micha\u0142 Witkowski <\/strong>(b. 1975) made a big impression on the Polish literary scene in the early 2000s as an out gay writer with his stylistically rich, novel, Lubiewo, translated as Lovetown by W. Martin, about gay life in Poland in the 1970s and 80s, and engaging many earlier works in the history of Polish literature and European literature more broadly. The novel was shortlisted for Poland\u2019s highest literary award, the Nike Prize, and won the Gdynia Literary Prize in 2006 and has been translated into eleven languages thus far. The English translation was nominated for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2011. He has also won the Paszport Polityki in 2007 and two more of his novels have been nominated for the Nike. In more recent years he has been using Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as platforms for literary experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this episode we discuss Lovetown, its offshoot Eleven-Inch, and a more recent story set on a train from Mi\u0119dzyzdroje near Lubiewo to Wroc\u0142aw in the early 2000s after the fall of Communism, but before Poland was standing on its own feet as a capitalist European country. In Lovetown we look at the tension between the closeted gay generation of the 1970s and 80s and the emerging emancipated generation seeking equal rights in areas such as gay marriage. Eleven-Inch we can see the awkward relationship between wealthy gay men in Western Europe and rent boys from Poland and other former Soviet-bloc countries looking to earn money in the Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. Our guest also gives us an overview of the history of queer literature, broadly construed, in Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Micha\u0142 Witkowski in English translation and recommended reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u0142a\u017cej Warkocki, \u201cFrom Poland with love: Politics of queerness in the time of neoliberal post-socialism (The case of Micha\u0142 Witkowski),\u201d<\/a><\/strong> Open Research Europe, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micha\u0142 Witkowski. Eleven-Inch<\/a><\/strong>. Tr. W. Martin. London: Seagull Books, 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micha\u0142 Witkowski. \u201cFare-Dodging to Paradise.\u201d<\/a><\/strong> Tr. W. Martin. The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories. Ed. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. New York: Penguin, 2025. Pgs. 260-62. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micha\u0142 Witkowski. Lovetown<\/a><\/strong>. Tr. W. Martin. London: Portobello Books, 2010. Also see the 2012 edition from Granta Books<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

William Martin<\/strong> is an educator, editor and translator from Polish and German. His publications include Micha\u0142 Witkowski\u2019s novels Eleven-Inch from Seagull Books in 2021 and Lovetown from Portobello Books in 2010, Erich K\u00e4stner\u2019s children\u2019s book Emil and the Detectives published by Overlook in 2007, and Natasza Goerke\u2019s short-story collection Farewells to Plasma from Twisted Spoon in 2002. He has translations forthcoming of Witold Gombrowicz\u2019s novel Cosmos from Fitzcarraldo Editions and Hubert Fichte\u2019s ethnopoetic novel Puberty from Seagull Books. He is the recipient of Fulbright and National Endowment of the Arts fellowships, has had residencies at Yaddo and the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators, teaches for Bard College and Pratt Institute, and lives in Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

David A. Goldfarb, Host & Producer
Bartek Remisko, Curator and Executive Producer
Natalia Iyudin, Produce<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Image:
Michal Witkowski, photo credit \u00a9 \u201cS\u0142awek,\u201d CC-BY-SA-2.0
Bill Martin ,photo credit \u00a9 William Martin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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S6E4 and all video recordings are available on our YouTube. Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature is a video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host David A. 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Our guest also gives us an overview of the history of queer literature, broadly construed, in Poland.\\nMicha\u0142 Witkowski in English translation and recommended reading:\\nB\u0142a\u017cej Warkocki, \u201cFrom Poland with love: Politics of queerness in the time of neoliberal post-socialism (The case of Micha\u0142 Witkowski),\u201d Open Research Europe, 2025. \\nMicha\u0142 Witkowski. Eleven-Inch. Tr. W. Martin. London: Seagull Books, 2021. \\nMicha\u0142 Witkowski. \u201cFare-Dodging to Paradise.\u201d Tr. W. Martin. The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories. Ed. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. New York: Penguin, 2025. Pgs. 260-62. \\nMicha\u0142 Witkowski. Lovetown. Tr. W. Martin. London: Portobello Books, 2010. Also see the 2012 edition from Granta Books. \\nWilliam Martin is an educator, editor and translator from Polish and German. 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Each month, host David A. Goldfarb will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature. More about the Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature series and the timeline.\nMicha\u0142 Witkowski (b. 1975) made a big impression on the Polish literary scene in the early 2000s as an out gay writer with his stylistically rich, novel, Lubiewo, translated as Lovetown by W. Martin, about gay life in Poland in the 1970s and 80s, and engaging many earlier works in the history of Polish literature and European literature more broadly. The novel was shortlisted for Poland\u2019s highest literary award, the Nike Prize, and won the Gdynia Literary Prize in 2006 and has been translated into eleven languages thus far. The English translation was nominated for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2011. He has also won the Paszport Polityki in 2007 and two more of his novels have been nominated for the Nike. In more recent years he has been using Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as platforms for literary experiments.\nIn this episode we discuss Lovetown, its offshoot Eleven-Inch, and a more recent story set on a train from Mi\u0119dzyzdroje near Lubiewo to Wroc\u0142aw in the early 2000s after the fall of Communism, but before Poland was standing on its own feet as a capitalist European country. In Lovetown we look at the tension between the closeted gay generation of the 1970s and 80s and the emerging emancipated generation seeking equal rights in areas such as gay marriage. Eleven-Inch we can see the awkward relationship between wealthy gay men in Western Europe and rent boys from Poland and other former Soviet-bloc countries looking to earn money in the Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. Our guest also gives us an overview of the history of queer literature, broadly construed, in Poland.\nMicha\u0142 Witkowski in English translation and recommended reading:\nB\u0142a\u017cej Warkocki, \u201cFrom Poland with love: Politics of queerness in the time of neoliberal post-socialism (The case of Micha\u0142 Witkowski),\u201d Open Research Europe, 2025. \nMicha\u0142 Witkowski. Eleven-Inch. Tr. W. Martin. London: Seagull Books, 2021. \nMicha\u0142 Witkowski. \u201cFare-Dodging to Paradise.\u201d Tr. W. Martin. The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories. Ed. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. New York: Penguin, 2025. Pgs. 260-62. \nMicha\u0142 Witkowski. Lovetown. Tr. W. Martin. London: Portobello Books, 2010. Also see the 2012 edition from Granta Books. \nWilliam Martin is an educator, editor and translator from Polish and German. His publications include Micha\u0142 Witkowski\u2019s novels Eleven-Inch from Seagull Books in 2021 and Lovetown from Portobello Books in 2010, Erich K\u00e4stner\u2019s children\u2019s book Emil and the Detectives published by Overlook in 2007, and Natasza Goerke\u2019s short-story collection Farewells to Plasma from Twisted Spoon in 2002. He has translations forthcoming of Witold Gombrowicz\u2019s novel Cosmos from Fitzcarraldo Editions and Hubert Fichte\u2019s ethnopoetic novel Puberty from Seagull Books. He is the recipient of Fulbright and National Endowment of the Arts fellowships, has had residencies at Yaddo and the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators, teaches for Bard College and Pratt Institute, and lives in Berlin.\nDavid A. Goldfarb, Host & ProducerBartek Remisko, Curator and Executive ProducerNatalia Iyudin, Produce\nImage:Michal Witkowski, photo credit \u00a9 \u201cS\u0142awek,\u201d CC-BY-SA-2.0Bill Martin ,photo credit \u00a9 William Martin"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/03\/27\/michal-witkowski-with-william-marti-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/03\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-7.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/03\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-7.png","width":1781,"height":1781},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/03\/27\/michal-witkowski-with-william-marti-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Micha\u0142 Witkowski with William Martin \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/","name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","description":"Instytuty Polskie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"pl-PL"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1","name":"stypulkowskaa","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a29bb1802c91e057084d5d112dd59dc4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"stypulkowskaa"},"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/author\/stypulkowskaa-2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20178"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20247,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20178\/revisions\/20247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}