DĄBROWSKI Tadeusz

Born on 28 October 1979 in Elbląg; son of the doctor Tadeusz Dąbrowski and the ballet artist Regina Katzor. He spent his childhood in Pasłęk where he attended the Heroes of Grunwald (Bohaterów Grunwaldu) Grammar School, completing his advanced secondary education in 1998. He subsequently studied Polish at the University of Gdansk (Uniwersytet Gdański – UG). He made his debut as a poet in 1997 with the piece macierzyństwo (motherhood), which was published in the literary bimonthly "Topos" (nos. 5/6). He joined the periodical in 2000 and was appointed to its editorial board in 2002. He also edited a series of poetry posters published by "Topos", with over 60 appearing by 2017. His poems, short essays and literary reviews later appeared in periodicals including "Pogranicza" (1999-2004), "FA-art" (2000-03), "Kresy" (2000-04), "Lampa i Iskra Boża" (2000-05), "Odra" (since 2002), "Res Publica Nowa" (2002-05), "Twórczość" (since 2002), the Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny" (since 2003), "Zeszyty Literackie" (since 2006), "Polityka" (2008-10), and "Pismo" (since 2019). His poetry, which has been translated into over thirty languages, has also been published in the foreign press, including in "The New Yorker", "Paris Review", "Boston Review", the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", "Sinn und Form", "manuskripe" and "Akzente". In 2000 he was a member of the editorial board of the journal "Pimka" and also collaborated with the student monthly "Vivat Akademia". In 2001, he was awarded the University of Gdansk Rector's Prize for his cultural engagement. He graduated from UG with a degree in Polish philology (and editing as a minor), in 2003. He was awarded a distinction in the Czesław Zgorzelski prize for the best master's dissertation in Poland for his study Fragment i fragmentaryczność w poezji Tadeusza Różewicza (Fragments and fragmentariness in the poetry of Tadeusz Różewicz) . In 2004/05 he was an editor at Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne, a publishing house specializing in psychology. He also worked as a presenter on Panorama, a news programme broadcast on the regional TVP3 network, while also collaborating with the TVP Kultura channel between 2005 and 2008. He has also appeared from time to time on Polish Radio programmes. He is a two-time winner of the Czerwona Róża (Red rose) poetry prize (in 2000 and 2002), while he was also nominated for the Pegaz (Pegasus) television prize in 2001. He received Nagroda m. Gdańska dla Młodych Twórców (Gdansk Prize for Young Artists, 2002), the "Małe Berło" (Little Sceptre) prize of Fundacja Kultura Polskiej (Polish Cultural Foundation) following a nomination from Tadeusz Różewicz, the winner of the main "Złote Berło" (Golden Sceptre) prize (2006), Nagroda Artystyczna Gdańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Sztuki (the Arts Prize of the Gdansk Arts Society 2007), the Splendor Gedanensis Cultural Prize of the City of Gdansk (2007), the Geneva-based Kościelski Foundation (2009), Nagroda Literacka m.st. Warszawy (the City of Warsaw Literary Prize, 2014), the German Hubert Burda Prize for Central and East European Poets (2008), and the Horst-Bienek-Förderpreis, awarded by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, 2014). He has been a fellow of various national and international institutions, including Fundacja im. S. Fleszarowej-Muskat (2000), Fundacja Rozwoju UG (Foundation for the Development of the University of Gdansk, 2003), Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators (Visby, 2004 and 2010), the A. Siemieńska Grazella Foundation (2004), the Marshall of the Pomeranian Voivodeship (2005, 2008 and 2013), Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (2006-10), the Polish Ministry of Culture and Heritage (2007 and 2010), Internationales Haus der Autoren Graz (2008), Literatur Lana (Italy, 2011), Vermont Studio Center (USA, 2011), Omi International Arts Center (USA, 2013), and Yaddo (USA, 2015), while he was also a Writer in Residence funded by Literaturhaus Zürich (2015), and the Swiss Landis & Gyr Foundation (Zug, 2016). He has participated in readings and literary festivals in the USA, Israel, India, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Cyprus. Between 2012 and 2019, he was artistic director of the Gdansk-based festival European Poet of Freedom (Europejski Poeta Wolności). Between 2017 and 2024, he was co-presented alongside Krzysztof Kuczkowski of the poetry show Po pierwsze wiersze [Verse First], with 330 episodes broadcast on Radio Gdansk. In 2021, he joined the board of the Gdansk Branch of the Society of Polish Writers (SPP). In 2024, he became a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (German Academy for Language and Literature). He was awarded the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis in 2018.

He has a daughter, Barbara. He lives in Gdansk.