JUREWICZ Aleksander

Born on 18 November 1952 in Lida, Belarus; son of the tailor Michał Jurewicz and Janina, née Łapian. He lived in the village of Krupova near Lida until 1957, when he and his parents left for Poland as part of the repatriation programme. He lived in the village of Redło near Połczyn-Zdrój, where he attended primary school. After completing advanced secondary education at the Grammar School in Połczyn-Zdrój, he moved to Gdansk where he studied Polish philology at the University of Gdansk (UG) before abandoning his degree in 1976. He made his debut in 1971 in the periodical "Radar" (no. 2) with an excerpt of prose titled Jesień bez liści (Autumn without Leaves). However, he considers the publication of his poems Między jednym oddechem (Between a single breath), Od niedawna widzę (I have recently come to see), Więc najpierw był krzyk (And so in the beginning was the scream), in the monthly "Nowy Wyraz" (1973, no. 10) as his proper debut. He was a member of the Youth Circle (Koło Młodych) of the Gdansk Branch of the Polish Writers' Union (ZLP). From 1973 he participated in poetry competitions and published his pieces in Gdansk student anthologies and in periodicals for young writers. He was as a teacher in a Gdansk primary school from 1977, while from that year until 1979 he was also a tutor in the Voluntary Labour Corps (Ochotnicze Hufce Pracy). In August 1980, he signed the resolution of the Youth Circle of the Gdansk Branch of ZLP supporting the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee at the Gdansk Shipyard. From January 1980 he worked at the Voivodeship and Municipal Public Library in Gdansk. He joined ZLP as a full member in 1981, remaining involved until the Union's dissolution in 1983. During the 1982/83 academic year he was on the Scriptwriting Programme (Studium Scenariuszowe) at the Lodz School of Film, Television and Theatre. Between 1980 and 1989, his poems appeared under the pen names O. Łapian and Olek Łapian in periodicals that were published outside the reach of state censorship, "Naprzeciw" (1980), "Wezwanie" (1982 and 1989), "Podpunkt" (of which he was co-editor between 1983 and 1989), "Arka" (1984), "Kurs" (1987), and "Puls" (1988). He also published poems, prose pieces and reviews using his real name in "Pomerania" (1988) and "Odra" (1989). He joined the Polish Writers' Association (SPP) in 1989, while in 1991 he became a member of the Polish Society of Authors and Composers (ZAiKS) and the Polish PEN Club. He was on the editorial board of the literary and artistic quarterly "Tytuł" between 1991 and 1998. He wrote literary columns, essays and notes for the following periodicals and publications: "Akcent" (1990; including the cycle of poems Kronika lidzka [Lida Chronicle]), "Kultura" (Paris; including in 1990 the cycle Lida), "Gazeta Morska" (the Gdansk supplement of the daily newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza"; including in 1992 the cycle: Życie i liryka [Life and Lyric]), "Tytuł" (1992-95), "Nasza Rodzina" (Paris, 1993-98; including between 1995 and 1998 the cycle Posłuchaj, M... [Listen, M...]), "Kwartalnik Artystyczny" (from 1994; including between 1998 and 2002 the cycle Zapiski ze stróżówki [Notes from the Gatehouse], and from 2003 to 2009 the cycle Samotnia [The Hermitage]), the Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny" (from 1994), and the daily newspaper "Dziennik Bałtycki" (1995-97). Between 1997 and 2002, he taught on the specialist course in literary practice at UG. He published in "Vivat Akademia" (1998-2002; including the cycle Z pamięci [From Memory]) and "Dzień Dobry. Trójmiasto" (2002; including the cycle Wolnym krokiem [A Slow Pace/A Free Step]). He received many awards for his literary work, including the Polcul Foundation Award (Australia; 1988), the Honorary Prize of the Gdansk Society of Friends of Art (Honorowa Nagroda Gdańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Sztuki; 1990), and the Maria and Jerzy Kuncewicz Foundation Prize (Nagroda Fundacji Marii i Jerzego Kuncewiczów; 1991). He was the inaugural recipient of Czesław Miłosz's private poetry award in 1991. He also won the "Pro libro legendo" prize awarded by the Voivodeship Public Library in Gdansk in 1996 and 2003, the Prize of the Mayor of the City of Gdansk in 1996, 2002 and 2012, Radio Gdansk's Radio Personality of the Year Award in 2002, and the Pomeranian Artistic Prize in 2002. He was also made Meritorious Activist of Culture in 2001. He married Aleskandra Bujak in 1980. They have a daughter, Justyna (b. 1981; her married name is Bieńkowska). He lives in Gdansk.