ŁUKASIEWICZ Małgorzata

Born on 21 May 1948 in Warsaw; daughter of Michał Łukasiewicz and Anna, née Ostrowska (Kózkowa from her first marriage). She attended the Juliusz Słowacki Grammar School (No. VII) in Warsaw, where she completed her advanced secondary education in 1966. That year she started studying at the Higher School of Foreign Languages (Wyższe Studium Języków Obcych) at the Faculty of Neophilology at the University of Warsaw (UW). She graduated with a diploma in German and French language before starting a part-time degree in philosophy at UW. She earned a living during this period by providing tuition and producing translations of applied texts. She also translated plays for Polish Radio Theatre, including a translation from Russian of a piece by Aleksandr Misharin, broadcast in 1972 as Pięć rozmów z synem (Five Conversations with my Son) and a translation from Norwegian of a work by Finn Havrevold, broadcast in 1972 as Wilhelm i Alicja (Wilhelm and Alice). She considers her debut proper as a translator to be her Polish version of the East German writer Franz Fühmann's diary, published in Polish as 22 dni czyli połowa życia (Twenty-Two Days, or Half a Life). Her translation appeared in 1974 in the periodical "Literatura na Świecie" (no. 9). A year later she published her first piece of literary criticism in the same periodical (no. 8), Przechadzki Roberta Walsera (Robert Walser's Walks). She continued to collaborate with the periodical until 1981. During this period she produced numerous translations from German, both of works of literature and of scholarship in the fields of sociology and philology. Her translations of works in literary studies appeared in the prestigious journal "Pamiętnik Literacki" from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1989 to 1993. She honed her skills as a translator by participating over several months in a seminar for young translators organized by the Polish Writers' Union (ZLP) before joining the ZLP's Foreign Literatures Programme (Studium Literatur Obcych) from 1976 to 1983. In 1979, she graduated from UW with a master's degree in philosophy. She was active in the democratic opposition to communism, signing the Memorandum of 101 (List 101) that protested against proposed changes to the constitution of the People's Republic of Poland. During this period she was also active as a translator, editor and typist collaborating with periodicals and journals published outside the reach of official censorship, "Komunikat" (later "Komunikat KSS KOR"), "Biuletyn Informacyjny" (from 1978 both were published together as "Komunikat KSS KOR. Biuletyn Informacyjny"), "Zapis", "Głos" and "Krytyka", where she published translations until 1988, both anonymously and using the pseudonym Małgorzata Górka. In 1979/80, she was active in the Society for Academic Courses (Towarzystwo Kursów Naukowych), through which the opposition offered higher-education standard courses. In 1981 she was appointed documentary editor at the weekly "Tygodnik Solidarność" and at the Publication Commission of the Independent Self-governing Trade Union Solidarity for the Mazovian Region. She was interned when martial law was imposed in Poland in 1981. Following her release in April 1982, she remained active in the opposition. She was a member of the underground Committee for Independent Culture (which operated until 1989) and collaborated with the monthly "Kultura Niezależna" until 1993 (intermittently, also publishing under the name Małgorzata Górka). She was also a member of the jury of the committee's prize, the Andrzej Kijowski Award from 1985 to 1989. She also published translations in the Paris-based "Zeszyty Literackie" between 1987 and 1992 (likewise using the pseudonyms M.Ł. and Małgorzata Górka). In 1987, she received the Polcul Foundation (Australia) prize in recognition of her contributions to independent culture. She received several research fellowships for stays abroad, first travelling to Zurich in 1985 on a Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Européenne grant then to West Germany in 1988 and 1989 as a fellow of the Europäisches Übersetzer Kollegium Nordrhein-Westfalen in Straelen and of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Berlin, respectively. In 1993, she was a fellow of the Institute of Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna. She joined the Polish PEN Club in 1988 and the Polish Writers' Association (SPP) in 1989. She cancelled her membership of the latter in August 2020. Between 1988 and 1996, she worked as an editor at the Czytelnik Publishing Cooperative. She was a member of the programme council of the Marabut publishing house from 1995 to 1996 before working in the same role at Wydawnictwo Literackie publishing house, preparing its series Pisarze Języka Niemieckiego (German-language Writers) between 1997 and 2004. In 1994, she revived her collaboration with "Literatura na Świecie", serving on the jury of the periodical's prize in 1998. In 1996, she started publishing in the monthly "Znak", including a regular column featuring literary essays, Rubryka pod różą (The Rose Column), which she began in 2000. She has received numerous prizes including lifetime achievement awards in recognition of her literary translations from the Association of Polish Translators (1991), the Robert Bosch Foundation (1991) and the Polish PEN Club (1994). In 1997, she joined the new Robert Walser Association and the commission of the Paul Celan Fellowship at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna, serving on it until 2001. From 1998 she was involved in the work of the Literary Group Polska 2000, which was established that year by the Villa Decius Association in Krakow, before being incorporated in 2000 into the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and then in 2003 into the Polish Book Institute. She gave courses at UW in German translation at the Erasmus of Rotterdam Chair between 1998 and 2000, while also running a seminar on German literature and culture at the Polish Cultural Institute between 2001 and 2002. She held further international fellowships, travelling to Zurich on a Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia grant in 2000 and to Berlin on a Robert Bosch Foundation grant in 2001. In 2001, she received the special grand prize of "Literatura na Świecie". In subsequent years she won the following awards: the Paweł Hertz prize awarded by the journal "Zeszyty Literackie" (2007) and the Polish-German Prize awarded by the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany for her outstanding contribution to Polish-German relations. Between 2006 and 2018, she served on the jury of the Gdynia Literary Prize, serving as chair of its Chapter in 2014. She revived her collaboration with "Zeszyty Literackie" in 2008, publishing articles, reviews and translations there. In 2016/17, she ran a series of masterclasses titled Found in Translation (Odnalezione w tłumaczeniu) at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow in collaboration with the Goethe Institute in Krakow and the Institute of Urban Culture in Gdansk. She received the 2018 Prize of the Marshal of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship and the Kazimierz Wyka Prize of the Mayor of the City of Krakow in recognition of her achievements as an essayist and literary critic. She lives in Warsaw.