Adam Zagajewski has died
Adam Zagajewski died in Kraków on March 21, at the age of 76. He was a Prominent poet, essayist, translator, representative of the New Wave generation, long-time editor of the Zeszyty Literackie quarterly magazine, university teacher, and recipient of multiple coveted literary awards. For many years his life was connected with Kraków. He passed away on March 21st - the day on which World Poetry is celebrated.
Adam Zagajewski was born on June 21, 1945 in Lviv. He spent his childhood in Gliwice, Silesia, and his university years in Kraków, where he graduated in psychology and philosophy from the Jagiellonian University. Associated with the Nowa Fala (New Wave) poetic movement, he co-authored, along with Julian Kornhauser, a famous book-manifesto of the New Wave generation - "The Unrepresented World". (1974). A member of the poetic group Teraz (Now), he gained fame as the leading poet of his generation (Generation '68). In 1972, his first poetry collection Komunikat/Announcement was published, and in 1975 Sklepy mięsne/Meat Shops.
In 1982, he moved to France and settled in Paris, where he was a co-founder and member of the editorial board of Zeszyty Literackie. He published collections of poems there, among others: List. Oda do wielości/Letter. Ode to Plularity (1983), Płótno/Canvas (1990) and Solidarność i samotność/Solidarity and Solitude (1986). He also worked as a visiting professor at the University of Houston (USA). In 2002 he returned to Kraków and settled here permanently. His next volumes: Land of Fire/Ziemia ognista (1994), Three Angels/Trzej aniołowie (1998), Desire/Pragnienie (1999), Antennas/Anteny (2005) were published in Poland, most of them in Kraków. The city was always there, and the collection entitled Return/Powrót (2003) was devoted entirely to Kraków, both in its reminiscence and contemporary layer.
Adam Zagajewski has won recognition around the world. For many years he was considered the polish candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He has been translated into almost all major world languages, including English, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish. His international recognition was cemented by the reprinting of his poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" in the New York Review of Books after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In the film "A View of Kraków", directed by Magdalena Piekorz, which he co-wrote, Adam Zagajewski says: "I like Kraków. For the fact that it is also my place on Earth. There's no competition at the moment".
