ALBIŃSKI Wojciech

Born on 27 January 1935 in Warsaw; son of the lawyer Wacław Albiński and Janina, née Mazowiecka. He spent his childhood in Włochy, near Warsaw. He attended the W. Górski Grammar School in Warsaw. After completing advanced secondary education, he studied land surveying at Warsaw Polytechnic. He made his debut as a poet in 1956 with two poems, Jak łatwo oszaleć (How easy it is to lose your mind) and Mała dziewczynka śpi (A little girl sleeps), that were published in the weekly "Po prostu" (no. 5). Around this time he also published the poems Koncert jazz (Jazz concert), Któregoś ranka (One morning) and Wyrok (The verdict) in the weekly "Dziś i Jutro" (no. 5), as well as Ofiarujesz mi ciepło (You give me warmth) and Sanatorium in the journal "Współczesność" (no. 1), a publication whose editorial board he was associated with until 1957. He joined the Youth Circle of the Polish Writers' Union (ZLP – Związek Literatów Polskich). After graduating from Warsaw Polytechnic in 1958, he worked as a surveyor in Poland and also spent nine months in Iraq in 1960 as a contract worker. He received a private invitation to come to Paris and he thus left Poland in April 1963. Soon afterwards he moved to Geneva where he worked as a surveyor and expert for cadastral affairs and cartography until 1969. He subsequently spent time in Africa, working in Botswana (known until 1966 as the Bechuanaland Protectorate) among other countries. From the late 1970s he lived in both Botswana and South Africa. After leaving Poland, he rarely published new works. The Paris-based journal "Kultura" did publish two short stories (under the pen name Jan Warski: Kino Centralne, [Central Cinema] 1968 no. 8/9 and Siateczka [The little bag],1969 no. 1/2), as well as his two poems (Kalahari part I and Kalahari part II, 1980 no. 6), while the London-based "Wiadomości" published his short story Węże spadają z nieba (Snakes are falling from the sky, 1980 no. 47/48). After 1990 he started visiting Poland and lived for some periods of time in Johannesburg and Warsaw. He also started writing again, with the periodicals "Literatura" (no. 1) and "Lampa, Iskra Boża" (no. 16) publishing several of his poems in 2000. In 2003 he published the first of his collections of short stories, some of which also appeared in the press (including in the newspape "Rzeczpospolita" and the Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechnym".
In 1959 he married the chemist Wanda Rowińska. They had two sons, Łukasz (b.
1970) and Dominik (b. 1975). He died on 6 July 2015 in Warsaw and is buried at the city's Powązki Cemetery.