Adam Zagajewski

Poet, novelist, essayist Adam Zagajewski was born in Lwów on June 21, 1945. He spent his childhood in Silesia and then in Cracow, where he graduated from Jagiellonian University.

Zagajewski first became well known as one of the leading poets of the Generation of '68' or the Polish New Wave (Nowa fala) and is one of Poland's most famous contemporary poets. His books of poetry in English include Asymmetry: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), Eternal Enemies: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), Without End: New and Selected Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002), and Mysticism for Beginners (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997), all translated by Clare Cavanagh. 

He is also the author of a memoir, Another Beauty (2000, translated by Clare Cavanagh) and the prose collections, Two Cities (1995, translated by Lillian Vallee) and Solitude and Solidarity (1990, translated by Lillian Vallee). His poems and essays have been translated into many languages. Among his honors and awards are a fellowship from the Berliner Kunstlerprogramm, the Kurt Tucholsky Prize, a Prix de la Liberté, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Since 1988, he has served as Visiting Associate Professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston. In 2010, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He served as co-editor of Zeszyty literackie (Literary Review), which is published in Paris. Zagajewski lived in Paris and Houston, Texas until his death on March 21, 2021.