{"id":21156,"date":"2026-06-25T23:11:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/?p=21156"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:20:24","slug":"jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/7-7VW8IjXpc\">S6E8<\/a>\u00a0and all video recordings are available on\u00a0our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@polishculturalinstituteinn5072\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature<\/strong>&nbsp;is a video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host&nbsp;<strong>David A. Goldfarb<\/strong>&nbsp;will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature.&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/encounters-with-polish-literature\">More about the Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature series<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;and the timeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jacek Dukaj (b. 1974) is one of Poland\u2019s most distinguished science fiction writers today, working in the literary tradition of Stanis\u0142aw Lem, considering philosophical ideas and history in the context of futuristic scenarios as well writing straightforward essays about literature and the future of writing more broadly. He has won the European Union Prize for Literature, Ko\u015bcielski Literary Award, the Czech Magnesia Litera covering all genres, and several Janusz A. Zajdel Awards given for science fiction in Polish, and Ursula Phillips\u2019s translation of his monumental novel, Ice, is the winner of the Found in Translation Award for books translated from Polish into English in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode we take some time to unravel some of the philosophical issues around the excerpts from Tadeusz Kotarbi\u0144ski\u2019s essay cited at the beginning of each section of Ice, and the problem of future contingents, or how we understand the truth status of statements about events that take place in the future. We look at the first part as a Warsaw novel-within-the-novel, and consider the many comparative dimensions of this rich work which is part dystopian, has a long journey by train, offers a reconsideration of history around the time of the Russian Revolution if the first World War were displaced by a world-changing natural occurrence, and presents the general atmosphere of a kind of futuristic past. We also consider the complexity of translating a work that is full of neologisms and is written in an archaic style that doesn\u2019t really have a suitable analogue in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jacek Dukaj in English translation and recommended resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jacek Dukaj. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/us\/ice-9781786697271\/\"><em>Ice<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. Tr. Ursula Phillips. London: Head of Zeus\/Bloomsbury, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jacek Dukaj official <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dukaj.pl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"682\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Ursula-Phillips-IK-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21159\" style=\"width:471px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Ursula-Phillips-IK-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Ursula-Phillips-IK-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Ursula-Phillips-IK-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Ursula-Phillips-IK-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Ursula-Phillips-IK.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ursula Phillips<\/strong>\u2019s most recent translation is Jacek Dukaj\u2019s sci-fi-cum-alternative-history epic Ice (2007) published in November 2025 by Head of Zeus (Bloomsbury), winner of the Found in Translation Award. Also in 2025, she contributed translations to The Penguin Anthology of Polish Short Stories, edited by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, of Pola Gojawiczy\u0144ska and Maria Kuncewiczowa (the latter\u2019s controversial \u201cCovenant with a Child,\u201d 1927). Other recent translations include Piotr Pazi\u0144ski\u2019s Bird Streets (2013, trans. 2022) and Agnieszka Taborska\u2019s The Unfinished Life of Phoebe Hicks (2013, trans. 2024). She has also translated academic books including Grzegorz Nizio\u0142ek\u2019s The Polish Theatre of the Holocaust (2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, where she worked for twenty-three years as Area Specialist librarian responsible for the Russian, Ukrainian and Polish collections and also occasionally taught Polish literature to undergraduates, before devoting herself primarily to translation. She has contributed to and co-edited five volumes of essays on Polish literature. She has been instrumental in introducing the work of Polish women authors from the 19th and early 20th centuries to Anglophone readers. Translations include Maria Wirtemberska\u2019s Malvina, or The Heart\u2019s Intuition (1816), Narcyza \u017bmichowska\u2019s The Heathen (1846), Zofia Na\u0142kowska\u2019s Choucas (1927), for which she received the 2015 Found in Translation Award, and Boundary (1935), for which she received the PIASA Wac\u0142aw Lednicki Award in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>David A. Goldfarb, Host &amp; Producer<br>Bartek Remisko, Curator and Executive Producer<br>Natalia Iyudin, Produce<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-3 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-2 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-vertical is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-1 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<p>Image:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jacek Dukaj \u00a9 photo by Albert Zawada<br>Ursula Phillips \u00a9&nbsp;Image courtesy of The Polish Book Institute\/Instytut Ksi\u0105\u017cki<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:31px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"972\" height=\"472\" src=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-10-at-10.12.09-AM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-10-at-10.12.09-AM.png 972w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-10-at-10.12.09-AM-300x146.png 300w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/05\/Screen-Shot-2023-05-10-at-10.12.09-AM-768x373.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 972px) 100vw, 972px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"224\" src=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/NTSH-A_LOGO_TRANSPARENT-1024x224.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10747\" style=\"width:388px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/NTSH-A_LOGO_TRANSPARENT-1024x224.png 1024w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/NTSH-A_LOGO_TRANSPARENT-300x66.png 300w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/NTSH-A_LOGO_TRANSPARENT-768x168.png 768w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/NTSH-A_LOGO_TRANSPARENT-1536x336.png 1536w, https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2024\/02\/NTSH-A_LOGO_TRANSPARENT.png 1614w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>S6E8\u00a0and all video recordings are available on\u00a0our\u00a0YouTube. Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature&nbsp;is a video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host&nbsp;David A. Goldfarb&nbsp;will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature.&nbsp;More about the Encounters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":21162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pl_PL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"S6E8\u00a0and all video recordings are available on\u00a0our\u00a0YouTube. Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature&nbsp;is a video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host&nbsp;David A. Goldfarb&nbsp;will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature.&nbsp;More about the Encounters [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-25T21:11:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-25T21:20:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1-1024x1024.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Napisane przez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"stypulkowskaa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Szacowany czas czytania\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minut\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"event\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/\",\"name\":\"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1-300x300.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1-1024x1024.png\",\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png\"],\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-25T21:11:36+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-25T21:20:24+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/\"]}],\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"startDate\":\"2026-08-01\",\"endDate\":\"2026-10-01\",\"eventStatus\":\"EventScheduled\",\"eventAttendanceMode\":\"OfflineEventAttendanceMode\",\"location\":{\"@type\":\"place\",\"name\":\"\",\"address\":\"\",\"geo\":{\"@type\":\"GeoCoordinates\",\"latitude\":\"\",\"longitude\":\"\"}},\"description\":\"S6E8\u00a0and all video recordings are available on\u00a0our\u00a0YouTube.\\nEncounters 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. 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.\\nJacek Dukaj (b. 1974) is one of Poland\u2019s most distinguished science fiction writers today, working in the literary tradition of Stanis\u0142aw Lem, considering philosophical ideas and history in the context of futuristic scenarios as well writing straightforward essays about literature and the future of writing more broadly. He has won the European Union Prize for Literature, Ko\u015bcielski Literary Award, the Czech Magnesia Litera covering all genres, and several Janusz A. Zajdel Awards given for science fiction in Polish, and Ursula Phillips\u2019s translation of his monumental novel, Ice, is the winner of the Found in Translation Award for books translated from Polish into English in 2025.\\nIn this episode we take some time to unravel some of the philosophical issues around the excerpts from Tadeusz Kotarbi\u0144ski\u2019s essay cited at the beginning of each section of Ice, and the problem of future contingents, or how we understand the truth status of statements about events that take place in the future. We look at the first part as a Warsaw novel-within-the-novel, and consider the many comparative dimensions of this rich work which is part dystopian, has a long journey by train, offers a reconsideration of history around the time of the Russian Revolution if the first World War were displaced by a world-changing natural occurrence, and presents the general atmosphere of a kind of futuristic past. We also consider the complexity of translating a work that is full of neologisms and is written in an archaic style that doesn\u2019t really have a suitable analogue in English.\\nJacek Dukaj in English translation and recommended resources:\\nJacek Dukaj. Ice. Tr. Ursula Phillips. London: Head of Zeus\/Bloomsbury, 2025. \\nJacek Dukaj official website.\\nUrsula Phillips\u2019s most recent translation is Jacek Dukaj\u2019s sci-fi-cum-alternative-history epic Ice (2007) published in November 2025 by Head of Zeus (Bloomsbury), winner of the Found in Translation Award. Also in 2025, she contributed translations to The Penguin Anthology of Polish Short Stories, edited by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, of Pola Gojawiczy\u0144ska and Maria Kuncewiczowa (the latter\u2019s controversial \u201cCovenant with a Child,\u201d 1927). Other recent translations include Piotr Pazi\u0144ski\u2019s Bird Streets (2013, trans. 2022) and Agnieszka Taborska\u2019s The Unfinished Life of Phoebe Hicks (2013, trans. 2024). She has also translated academic books including Grzegorz Nizio\u0142ek\u2019s The Polish Theatre of the Holocaust (2019).\\nShe is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, where she worked for twenty-three years as Area Specialist librarian responsible for the Russian, Ukrainian and Polish collections and also occasionally taught Polish literature to undergraduates, before devoting herself primarily to translation. She has contributed to and co-edited five volumes of essays on Polish literature. She has been instrumental in introducing the work of Polish women authors from the 19th and early 20th centuries to Anglophone readers. Translations include Maria Wirtemberska\u2019s Malvina, or The Heart\u2019s Intuition (1816), Narcyza \u017bmichowska\u2019s The Heathen (1846), Zofia Na\u0142kowska\u2019s Choucas (1927), for which she received the 2015 Found in Translation Award, and Boundary (1935), for which she received the PIASA Wac\u0142aw Lednicki Award in 2017.\\nDavid A. Goldfarb, Host &amp; ProducerBartek Remisko, Curator and Executive ProducerNatalia Iyudin, Produce\\nImage:\\nJacek Dukaj \u00a9 photo by Albert ZawadaUrsula Phillips \u00a9 Image courtesy of The Polish Book Institute\/Instytut Ksi\u0105\u017cki\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"pl-PL\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png\",\"width\":2226,\"height\":2226},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \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\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/","og_locale":"pl_PL","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature - Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","og_description":"S6E8\u00a0and all video recordings are available on\u00a0our\u00a0YouTube. Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature&nbsp;is a video series for anyone interested in literature and the culture of books and reading. Each month, host&nbsp;David A. Goldfarb&nbsp;will present a new topic in conversation with an expert on that author or book or movement in Polish literature.&nbsp;More about the Encounters [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/","og_site_name":"Instytut Polski w Nowym Jorku","article_published_time":"2026-06-25T21:11:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-06-25T21:20:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1-1024x1024.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"stypulkowskaa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Napisane przez":"stypulkowskaa","Szacowany czas czytania":"5 minut"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"event","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/","name":"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \u2013 Encounters with Polish and Ukrainian Literature","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#primaryimage"},"image":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1-300x300.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1-1024x1024.png","https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png"],"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png","datePublished":"2026-06-25T21:11:36+02:00","dateModified":"2026-06-25T21:20:24+02:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/#\/schema\/person\/c732b2695ee92026d080eec35471c7f1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"pl-PL","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/"]}],"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","startDate":"2026-08-01","endDate":"2026-10-01","eventStatus":"EventScheduled","eventAttendanceMode":"OfflineEventAttendanceMode","location":{"@type":"place","name":"","address":"","geo":{"@type":"GeoCoordinates","latitude":"","longitude":""}},"description":"S6E8\u00a0and all video recordings are available on\u00a0our\u00a0YouTube.\nEncounters 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. 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.\nJacek Dukaj (b. 1974) is one of Poland\u2019s most distinguished science fiction writers today, working in the literary tradition of Stanis\u0142aw Lem, considering philosophical ideas and history in the context of futuristic scenarios as well writing straightforward essays about literature and the future of writing more broadly. He has won the European Union Prize for Literature, Ko\u015bcielski Literary Award, the Czech Magnesia Litera covering all genres, and several Janusz A. Zajdel Awards given for science fiction in Polish, and Ursula Phillips\u2019s translation of his monumental novel, Ice, is the winner of the Found in Translation Award for books translated from Polish into English in 2025.\nIn this episode we take some time to unravel some of the philosophical issues around the excerpts from Tadeusz Kotarbi\u0144ski\u2019s essay cited at the beginning of each section of Ice, and the problem of future contingents, or how we understand the truth status of statements about events that take place in the future. We look at the first part as a Warsaw novel-within-the-novel, and consider the many comparative dimensions of this rich work which is part dystopian, has a long journey by train, offers a reconsideration of history around the time of the Russian Revolution if the first World War were displaced by a world-changing natural occurrence, and presents the general atmosphere of a kind of futuristic past. We also consider the complexity of translating a work that is full of neologisms and is written in an archaic style that doesn\u2019t really have a suitable analogue in English.\nJacek Dukaj in English translation and recommended resources:\nJacek Dukaj. Ice. Tr. Ursula Phillips. London: Head of Zeus\/Bloomsbury, 2025. \nJacek Dukaj official website.\nUrsula Phillips\u2019s most recent translation is Jacek Dukaj\u2019s sci-fi-cum-alternative-history epic Ice (2007) published in November 2025 by Head of Zeus (Bloomsbury), winner of the Found in Translation Award. Also in 2025, she contributed translations to The Penguin Anthology of Polish Short Stories, edited by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, of Pola Gojawiczy\u0144ska and Maria Kuncewiczowa (the latter\u2019s controversial \u201cCovenant with a Child,\u201d 1927). Other recent translations include Piotr Pazi\u0144ski\u2019s Bird Streets (2013, trans. 2022) and Agnieszka Taborska\u2019s The Unfinished Life of Phoebe Hicks (2013, trans. 2024). She has also translated academic books including Grzegorz Nizio\u0142ek\u2019s The Polish Theatre of the Holocaust (2019).\nShe is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, where she worked for twenty-three years as Area Specialist librarian responsible for the Russian, Ukrainian and Polish collections and also occasionally taught Polish literature to undergraduates, before devoting herself primarily to translation. She has contributed to and co-edited five volumes of essays on Polish literature. She has been instrumental in introducing the work of Polish women authors from the 19th and early 20th centuries to Anglophone readers. Translations include Maria Wirtemberska\u2019s Malvina, or The Heart\u2019s Intuition (1816), Narcyza \u017bmichowska\u2019s The Heathen (1846), Zofia Na\u0142kowska\u2019s Choucas (1927), for which she received the 2015 Found in Translation Award, and Boundary (1935), for which she received the PIASA Wac\u0142aw Lednicki Award in 2017.\nDavid A. Goldfarb, Host &amp; ProducerBartek Remisko, Curator and Executive ProducerNatalia Iyudin, Produce\nImage:\nJacek Dukaj \u00a9 photo by Albert ZawadaUrsula Phillips \u00a9 Image courtesy of The Polish Book Institute\/Instytut Ksi\u0105\u017cki"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"pl-PL","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/06\/Encounters-Socials-2.psd-1.png","width":2226,"height":2226},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/2026\/06\/25\/jacek-dukaj-with-ursula-phillips-encounters-with-polish-and-ukrainian-literature\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jacek Dukaj with Ursula Phillips \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\/21156","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=21156"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21164,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21156\/revisions\/21164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instytutpolski.pl\/newyork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}