JENTYS Maria

Born on 1 January 1942 in Łuków in the Lublin region into a family of doctors; daughter of Jerzy Jentys and Kamila, née Zdaniewska. She attended primary school in Zielona Góra in 1948, Strzelno near Mogilno between 1948 and 1953, and in Wyrzysk near Nakło from 1953 to 1955. She attended the Tadeusz Kościuszko Grammar School in Łobżenica (Piła district) from 1955, completing her advanced secondary education in 1959. She then studied Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW). In the 1961/62, academic year she also studied classical philology at UW, passing the first year of the degree programme. During her studies she collaborated with the student weekly "Politechnik" where she published her debut article, Od „Wyroku” do wyroku ([From "The Judgement" to a sentence]; 1963, no. 24; she used the name Maria Jentys); she continued to publish reviews, column pieces, reportages and articles in this periodical until 1966. She graduated with a master's degree in Polish philology in 1964, receiving the rector's prize for her dissertation, „Matka Joanna od Aniołów” Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza w kręgu utworów o złu (Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz's "Mother Joan of the Angels" as a Treatise on Evil). Between 1965 and 1968, she worked on the editorial board of the Polish National Library's yearbook "Rocznik Biblioteki Narodowej", initially as an editor and proofreader of scholarly articles and then towards the end of her time there as deputy secretary of the editorial board. From 1970 to 1979, she was editor in the Department of Contemporary Literature (Redakcja Literatury Pięknej Współczesnej) at the publishing house Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza. During this period was active as an author and literary critic. She made her debut as a critic in 1972 with a review of Stanisław Czernik's Sny i widma (Dreams and Spectres). Her review, published under the title of Czernik's work, appeared in "Tygodnik Kulturalny" (no. 4; under the name Maria Wronkowska). She made her debut as a poet in 1977 with the pieces Cisza (Silence), Dialog ze sobą (Dialogue with myself), Nie widzisz ludzi… (You don't see people...), Przed podróżą (Before a journey), and Uwięziony cień (Imprisoned shadow), which were published in the quartely "Regiony" (1977, no. 1, under the name Maria Jentys). She collaborated regularly with the publication from 1975 to 1992 and again from 1996 to 2003 (1975-78 she used the name Maria Wronkowska, and then Maria Jentys). Between 1979 and 1991, she worked in the Department of Debut Works (Redakcja Debiutów) at the publishing house Państwowe Wydawnictwo Iskry. She also published reviews, essays, poems and short stories in "Odra" (1984-85, 1987), "Twórczość" (from 1984), "Zielony Sztandar" (1984-85), "Nowe Książki" (1986-88), "Przegląd Tygodniowy" (including in 1986 the regular review column "Czytelnia na Brackiej" [The Reading Room on Bracka Street]), "Więź" (1987; using cryptonyms including M.J.), "Integracje" (1988, 1991), "Kierunki" (1988-90), "Pismo Literacko-Artystyczne" (1989), "Poezja" (1989), "Nadodrze" (1989), "Tygodnik Podlaski" (1989), "Potop" (1991), "Arkusz" (1991, 1997), "Kresy Literackie" (1991-95), "Literatura" (1992), "Okolice" (1992), "Przegląd Literacki" (1992-93), "Kwartalnik Artystyczny Kujawy i Pomorze" (1994), "Sycyna" (1995-98; she was also a member of its editorial board; here she also published under the name Anna Zdaniewska and the cryptonym M.J.), "Rocznik Nadnotecki" (1996-97), "Akant" (1998-2000), "Magazyn Literacki" (1999), and "Śląsk" (1999-2000). From April 1991 to 1993, she was secretary of the publishing house Oficyna Literatów i Dziennikarzy Pod Wiatr, where she also worked as editor and proofreader. Then from May to August 1993 she worked at the Polish National Library's Bibliographic Guide Department (Zakład Przewodnika Bibliograficznego). In September 1993, she moved to Polish Scientific Publishers PWN, where she remained until retiring in 2002. For three more years she collaborated with the publishers as a freelance. She was an editor at its Encyclopaedia Section, initially in the Lexicography Team, and then from April 1996 in Encyclopaedia Team 6. She was an editor and contributor to Literatura polska XX wieku. Przewodnik encyklopedyczny ([Twentieth-Century Polish Literature: An Encyclopaedic Guide], vols 1-2, 2000) and Wielką Encyklopedia PWN ([Great PWN Encyclopaedia], vols 1-30 + 31 supplement, published to 2005). She was also a contributor to the unpublished five-volume Encyklopedia literatury światowej (Encyclopaedia of World Literature). She joined the Association of Polish Writers (SPP) in 1995. From 2005 to 2008, she was a member of the Board of the Warsaw Branch, then from 2008 to 2010 she was secretary of the Association's Executive Board. During this time she collaborated regularly with the quarterly "Migotania, Przejaśnienia", starting in 2003, while in 2008 she became a regular contributor, joining the editorial board in 2009 (in 2011 it was renamed "Migotania"). She also collaborated regularly with the quarterly "Wyspa" from 2007 to 2011, serving on its editorial board between 2007 and 2009. She also published in the periodicals "eleWator" (2012), "Podgląd" (2016-17; including an excerpt from her novel "Dziennik Aleksandry", [Aleksandra's Diary] 2017, no. 2-3), and "Twórczość" (2016-17). She twice received a fellowship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, in 2004 and 2006, and from the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship in 2014. She received the Special Prize of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2007, the Prize of the Fund for the Promotion of Culture of the same ministry (Nagroda Funduszu Promocji Twórczości Ministerstwa Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego) in 2007, and the 2011 Witold Hulewicz Prize. She received the Silver Cross of Merit in 1984 and was made Meritorious Activist of Culture in 1988. She married the Warsaw University of Technology lecturer Leszek Wronkowski in 1963. They divorced in 1976. She married the retired Krakow AGH University of Science and Technology lecturer Marcin Borelowski in 2009. She lived in Krakow until 2012, when she and her husband moved to Warsaw.