NIEMIEC Maciej

Born on 7 October 1953 in Warsaw; son of the engineer Janusz Niemiec and Dorota Stachowska. From 1955, he lived with his parents in Stalowa Wola, where his father was an employee at the steelworks. He completed his advanced secondary education at the city's Grammar School (which is now named after the Commission for National Education) in 1972. He was unsuccessful in securing a place on the Polish philology programme at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow and thus spent a period as a student on the State Librarian Programme in Krosno. He was employed in various jobs, including as a music coach for a rock band, while also performing as a rock musician, and as a draughtsman at the Stalowa Wola Steelworks. He lived in Wroclaw from 1979, where he initially worked as a medical secretary at the city's Medical Academy. He was involved in the democratic opposition from 1983. His flat housed an illegal printing press, while he also distributed and printed materials of the Farmers National Resistance Committee (Ogólnopolski Komitet Oporu Rolników) and collaborated with the monthly "Biuletyn Dolnośląski". From 1985, he was active as a proofreader for independent publications, as well as for university presses. He made his debut as a poet in 1986 with the poems Czytałem niczego nie rozumiejąc (I read without understanding a thing), IV. Mówić jednak… (IV. Speaking nonetheless...), VII. Palce bezradne… (VII. Helpless fingers...), and Wystarczy pragnąć dobra… (It is enough to want good...), which appeared in the independent Warsaw literary periodical "Wezwanie" (no. 11). He also published poems in other underground periodicals, namely "Res Publica"* (1987), "Arka"* (1988), and "Obserwator Wielkopolski"* (1988), as well as in "Kultura" (1988) and "Kontynenty" (1988). In 1987, he conceived and co-founded the periodical "Kontur"*, which was published beyond the reach of state censorship. The same year, he was awarded a fellowship by the Foundation for Supporting Independent Polish Literature and Scholarship, which had recently been established in Paris, and by the Polish Historical Society in Paris. He initially lived in Foyer Jean-Paul II, a student dormitory run by the Pallottines. He was associated with the Centre du Dialogue, which was a hub for cultural life. He remained in Paris for the rest of his life. Between 1989 and 1992, he worked in the Polish Bookshop (Księgarnia Polska), while 1990/91 he was also head of the cultural section of the journal "Kontakt", where he he also published between 1988 and 1990. From 1992 to 1993, he collaborated with Radio France International and Radio Free Europe. His poems, translations from French and occasional reviews appeared in the periodicals "Zeszyty Literackie" (1988, 1994, 1999-2004, and 2007-2011; he was also employed here as a proofreader and technical editor), "Czas Kultury"* (1989), "W drodze" (1989-1990, 1992-1994, and 1996), "Kultura" (Paris; 1991 and 1993), "Nasza Rodzina = Notre Famille" (1992-1995), "Tygodnik Solidarność" (1992 and 1993-94), "Czas Kultury" (1993-1995 and 1998), "Deutsch-Polnische Ansichten zur Literatur und Kultur" (1993), "Tytuł" (1993, 1995), "Format" (1994, 1996/1997), "Gazeta Malarzy i Poetów" (from 1994; contributor), "Tygodnik Powszechny" (1994, 1996, and 1998), "Na Głos" (1995-96), "Sycyna" (1995), "Ansichten" (1996), "Dekada Literacka" (1996-97), "Kresy" (1996), "Tygiel Kultury" (1996, 2000), "Kwartalnik Artystyczny" (1997), "B 1 [Bundesstrasse 1]" (1998), "Twórczość" (1998-2000), "Res Publica Nowa" (2002), "Arkadia" (2003), and "Odra" (2011). He was a regular contributor to the Paris-based quarterly "PO&SIE", with whose editor, Michel Deguy, he enjoyed a friendship. Deguy also translated his poems. Niemiec was a member of the Polish Writers' Association (SPP), the Polish PEN Club (from 1996), the Société Historique et Littéraire Polonaise (from 1997), the French PEN Club (from 2004), and the French literary society Société des gens de lettres de France (from 2007). He won numerous prizes, including the Kościelski Award of the Geneva-based Kościelski Foundation in 1994, the Editor's Choice Award in 1994, a prize in the Karl Decedius Award Polish National Single Poem Prize in 1996, the Europa '97 Pegasus (Pegaz) Prize as part of the "Miejsce, w którym jestem..." (Where I am...) European Competition for a Polish Émigré Poem, and the Zygmunt Zaleski and Maria Zaleska Prize in 1999. He occasionally lived in the House of St Casimir in Paris, a nursing home for the Polish community. He died by suicide on 25 January 2012 in Paris, where he is buried at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery. He has a son, Dawid, from his first marriage. He was also married to the Polish studies scholar and art critic Renata Głowacka (they divorced). They had three children: Jakub, Anna and Marie-Aline.