Update: Polish Diaspora Writing

The Poetry Foundation published a 9/11 poem by Polish Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska about a photograph people falling from the World Trade Center. The poem is called "Photograph from Sept. 11," and the text and an audio version of the poem are available from the Foundation site.

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On Oct. 11, 2011, between 4 pm and 6 pm, John Guzlowski will be giving a reading at the Founders Hall Theater/Callahan Center, St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY. The reading is called Lightning and Ashes: Two Lives Shaped by World War II and will focus on his parents and their experiences in the concentration and slave labor camps in Nazi Germany. The reading is free and open to the public.

Here's a youtube of one of the poems:

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Oriana Ivy's new chapbook April Snow won the $1000 Finishing Line Press New Women's Voices Competition. The book will be published this coming April. You can read some of her excellent poems at her blog.

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Stateside, Jehanne Dubrow's new book of poems about her military husband's deployment, was recently featured on the NPR program Fresh Air.

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Polish-American journalist Bozena U. Zaremba continues her extraordinary interviews with classical pianists. Here is her recent interview with Jon Nakamatsu, 1997 Gold Medalist at the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Click here.

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John Minczeski and I are editing a new edition of the classic anthology of Polish American writing, Concert at Chopin's House. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 31, 2012. Click here to read about submission guidelines.

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Suzanne Strempek Shea, the author of the Hoopi Shoopi Donna and Selling the Lite of Heaven, will be speaking at a symposium "In Praise of the Essay," at Fordham University's Lincoln Center on October 15. Complete information is available at the university's website.

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A photograph by the photographer Bogdan Frymorgen:

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Anna Marie Mickiewicz's poetry was recently read by Ott-Siim Toomet at the Art Centre in Vaniistu, Estonia. Ott read the poems in Polish. He is the son of the well-known Estonian writer of Polish origin, Jaan Kaplinski.

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Grzegorz Wroblewski's one-act play "Turning Point" is now available online. Five of his poems, translated from Polish by Agnieszka Pokojska, appear in the new issue of 3:AM Magazine.

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Off_Press is devoted to publishing contemporary Polish poetry in English translation. It features the work of such writers as Wioletta Grzegorzewska, Jacek Maczek and Marta Gorska. Here's the link.

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Jen Michelski has just announced the last issue of her online literary journal, JMWW. This issue focues on non-fiction with pieces by Ron Capps, Curtis Smith, Jane Satterfiled, and others. You can check it all out by clicking here.

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Anglo-Polish poet Sarah Luczaj's book Urgent Request has been translated into Polish. The Polish title is Pilna Prosba. The English version is currently available at Amazon. Here's one of the poems from the book, first in Polish and then in English:

MOJE ŻYCIE JEST WSPANIAŁE

Nikt, kogo kocham

nie umarł na razie dziś

każda wojna na tym świecie bez wyjątku

mnie omijała

nie głoduję i nie trafiłam

na mapę żadnego terrorysty

ani na niczyją oś zła

nikt mnie dzisiaj nie torturował

żaden policjant nie zastrzelił mnie przypadkiem ani celowo

żadna fala tsunami nie zmyła mojego domu

nie zostałam skazana na karę śmierci za zdradę,

bluźnierstwo, morderstwo

ani za to, że zupa była za słona

MY LIFE IS BRILLIANT

No one I love

has died so far today

every single war in this world

has passed me by

I am not starving and I haven’t stumbled

onto any terrorist’s map

or into anyone’s axis of evil

nobody tortured me today

no policeman shot me by accident or on purpose

no tidal wave swept my house away

I was not sentenced to death for infidelity

blasphemy, murder

or not having put enough salt in the soup