ĆWIKLIŃSKI Krzysztof

Born on 6 October 1960 in Ciechocinek; son of the physiotherapy technician Ryszard Jerzy Ćwikliński and the civil servant Barbara, née Ostrowska. He went to school in Ciechocinek, completing his advanced secondary education at the Stanisław Staszic Grammar School in 1979. He then went on to study Polish philology at the Faculty of Humanities at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK – Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika) in Torun. He made his debut as a poet in 1979 with the poems Według Filipa von Hohenheim (According to Philipp von Hohenheim), Na przykład Fryderyk (Frédéric, for example) and [inc.:] Alonso Perez książę de Medina-Sidonia… (Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia), which appeared in the weekly "Czas" (no. 8). His debut as a literary critic came with a review of Miodopój. Wybór wierszy irlandzkich VI-XIII w (The Honey Well. A Selection of Irish Poetry from the 6-13th centuries) titled Poezja starej Irlandii (The Poetry of Old Ireland) that was published in the weekly "Za i Przeciw" (no. 38). His poems, articles and reviews, as well as translations of German and Russian literature, appeared in subsequent years in periodicals including "Za i Przeciw" (1979-80 and 1983; including a review using the alias K.C.), "Integracje" (1982-83 and 1985), "Tu i Teraz" (1983-85), "Fakty" (1983-86), "Słowo Powszechne" (1983-84 and 1986), "Nurt" (1984-86 and 1988), "Kierunki" (1985-87; including contributions using the pen name Adrian Chodowiecki), the Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny" (1986-87 and 2010-11), "Morze i Ziemia" (1986-88) and "Twórczość" (1986-87, 1989, 1995-96, 2005-08 and 2011). He also published in regional periodicals from Pomerania, including "Warmia i Mazury" (1983 and 1985), "Posłaniec Warmiński" (1987), "Toruński Informator Kulturalny" (1988-89), "Maska Toruńska” (1990) and "Expres Bydgoski" (1993). He was awarded a master's degree from UMK in 1985 and started working as a teacher of Polish at the Major H. "Hubal" Dobrzański Technical Schools in Aleksandrów Kujawski from the start of the 1985/86 school year. At the start of the 1986/87 academic year, he was appointed teaching assistant (later becoming senior teaching assistant following a year of military service) at the Department of the Literature of Young Poland and the Interwar Period (Zakład Literatury Młodej Polski i Dwudziestolecia Międzywojennego) at the Institute Polish Philology at UMK (which later became the Institute of Polish Literature). He also collaborated with the university's Centre for Émigré Studies (Pracownia Badań Emigracji). At the same time, between 1988 and 1990, he taught Polish language at the S.B. Linde Grammar School (No. 3) in Torun. In 1987 he became a member of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society (serving as deputy chairman of the Torun branch between 2006 and 2010). In 1988 he joined the Torun Scientific Society (Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu) and in the 1999 the Association of Polish Writers (SPP), where he was initially a member of the Youth Commission of the Central Council (Komisja Młodzieżowa Zarządu Głównego). From 2008 to 2011 he was chairman of the Torun branch and member of the SPP Central Council. Following the dissolution of the Torun branch in 2011, he joined the Gdansk section. In 1989 he won the W. Pietrzak Youth Prize (Nagroda Młodych im. W. Pietrzaka). He occasionally collaborated with Polish Radio's national stations, as well as the local services in Pomerania and Kujavia. He also worked with Radio Free Europe, where he broadcast poems and opinion pieces. In 1990 he received a fellowship from the Austrian Ministry of Science to study at the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the University of Vienna. In 1992 he co-founded the monthly "PAL: Przegląd Artystyczno-Literacki", serving on its editorial board until 1997. He also published articles in this periodical between 1992 and 2002, likewise under the pen names Małgorzata Vogt and Paweł Sarcewicz. He expanded his output as a writer and literary critic, publishing poems, translations, articles and reviews in many periodicals including "Odra" (1992-95, 1997, 2010 and 2017), "Akcent" (1992, 1994 and 1998), "Kwartalnik Artystyczny" (1994-95 and 1998-99), "Borussia" (intermittently between 1995 and 2005) and "Nowe Książki" (1996-2001 and 2010), as well as in the London-based "Dziennik Polski i Dziennik Żołnierza" and its supplement "Tydzień Polski" (1999-2000, 2002, under the pen name Marek Jaklicz) and the New York-based "Przegląd Polski" (together with its social and cultural supplement "Nowy Dziennik"; intermittently between 2000 and 2010). He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1996 from the Faculty of Humanities at UMK for his dissertation Gatunki paraliterackie w twórczości Andrzeja Bobkowskiego (Paraliterary genres in the works of Andrzej Bobkowski), which was supervised by Prof. Janusz Kryszak. He was subsequently appointed lecturer. In 1996 he held a fellowship at the Polish Library in Paris and in 1997 at the University College of Teacher Education in Vienna. In 1999, he became a member of the T. Parnicki Literary Society (Towarzystwo Literackie im. T. Parnickiego) while in 2000 he was initiated into the Torun Artists' Fraternity (Toruńska Konfraternia Artystów). He conducted two research trips in 2000, one to the Polish University Abroad (Polski Uniwersytet na Obczyźnie) in London and the other to the Janus Pannonius University in Pécs in Hungary. The same year, he was awarded the T. Sułkowski Literary Prize (Nagroda Literacka im. T. Sułkowskiego) by the London-based Poets' and Painters' Press (Oficyna Poetów i Malarzy) for his work on émigré literature. Between 2001 and 2014, he was a member of the Chapter of the S.B. Linde Prize of the Partner Cities of Torun and Göttingen (Nagroda S.B. Linde). In 2004 he served on then editorial board of "Kwartalnik Artystyczny". He was also a co-founder of the Torun-based literary quarterly "Teka". In 2005 he worked at the Chair of Polish Philology at the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest as a fellow of the Hungarian Ministry of Education. Between 2006 and 2011, he was secretary of the Board of the Prof. Artur Hutnikiewicz Foundation, while from 2008 to 2010 he was a member of the Fellowship Commission in the cultural department of the office of the Mayor of the City of Torun. Between 2010 and 2012, he was a senior lecturer at the Department of Cultural Knowledge (Zakład Wiedzy o Kulturze) at the Institute of Polish Literature at UMK, which in 2011 became the Chair of Cultural Studies at UMK. At the same time, he also taught at the Faculty of Education in 2011/12, while also working at the Institute of Cultural Studies and Philosophy at the University of Economy WSG in Bydgoszcz (Wyższa Szkoła Gospodarki w Bydgoszczy). In 2010 he started writing radio plays and shows for the Polish Radio Theatre (Teatr Polskiego Radia). The same year, he became a member of the Polish Cultural Studies Association (Polskie Towarzystwo Kulturoznawcze) and the Polish PEN Club. He was awarded a habilitation degree in 2012 from UMK for his study Znani i nieobecni. Studia o i szkice o Andrzeju Bobkowskim i innych pisarzach emigracyjnych (Known and Absent: Studies and Sketches on Andrzej Bobkowski and other émigré writers). He won prizes in numerous poetry competitions and other awards, both individual and collective, of the rector of UMK. In 2012/13 he collaborated with the Institute of Postgraduate Studies at the Paweł Włodkowic University College (Instytut Studiów Podyplomowych Szkoły Wyższej im. P. Włodkowica w Płocku) in Płock, as well as with its branches in Iława and Wyszków. Between 2013 and 2016 he worked as an associate professor at the Chair of Polish Philology at the Faculty of Philology and Pedagogics at the Kazimierz Pułaski University of Technology and Humanities (Uniwersytet Technologiczno-Humanistyczny im. K. Pułaskiego) in Radom. He also taught at the same institution during the 2018/19 academic year. In parallel, he started working in 2017 at the Pedagogium Higher School of Social Sciences (Pedagogium Wyższa Szkoła Nauk Społecznych) in Warsaw as a professor. In 2017, was acting rector of the institution, formally taking the role at the start of the 2017/18 academic year. He was a visiting lecturer at the University of Göttingen during the 2017 summer semester. He has published essays, articles and literary reviews in periodicals including "Pogranicza", (2010), „Bliza” (2010-11), "Migotania" (2012) and "Bibliotekarz Podlaski" (2016).
He lives in Radom.