DRZEWUCKI Janusz

Born on 6 December 1958 in Kruszwica; son of the economist Mieczysław Drzewucki and the bookkeeper Alina, née Dąbrowska. He started attending the grammar school in Kruszwica in 1973, completing his advanced secondary education in 1977. He subsequently studied Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow. He made his debut as a poet in 1979 with the poems Otwarcie bram światła (Opening the gates of light) and Na odległość (At a distance), published in "Życie Literackie" (no. 13). He also published in "Notatnik Klubowy", the official publication of the Polish Council of Student Clubs (Ogólnopolska Rada Klubów Studenckich). From 1980 to 1982 he was deputy director and then chair of the Polish Studies Academic Group at UJ. He was also co-founded of the Situationist Literary Group "Warsztat" (lit. Workshop), which published a periodical of the same name. He was awarded a master's degree from UJ in 1982. His master's dissertation was titled Mit i rzeczywistość. O twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta (Myth and Reality: On the works of Zbigniew Herbert). He was then employed as an assistant lecturer at the Institute of Polish Philology at UJ until 1984. From 1984 until 1990 he worked at the Pomorze publishing house in Bydgoszcz as an editor, deputy director and head of the Department of Literature. During this period he lived in Inowrocław and Torun. He continued to write poetry and literary criticism, publishing numerous pieces of verse, articles and reviews in the periodicals "Student" (1984-89; where he was a regular correspondent), "Twórczość" (1985/86), "Życie Literackie" (1985-89; in issue 22, 1985, he published a review of S. Stabro's volume of poetry Dzieci Leonarda Cohena (Leonard Cohen's Children) titled Rozpacz, obsesje i autoplagiat (Despair, obsession and self-plagariasm), a piece he considers his debut as a literary critic), "Literatura" (1986), "Piśmo Literacko-Artystyczne" (1986-89), and "Poezja" (1986-87). He received prizes for his essays and literary criticism, including an award from Warszawska Jesień Poetycka (1985 and 1986 – the Warsaw Autumn Poetry Festival), the Stanisław Wyspiański Award (1989) and the prize of the Ministry of Art and Culture's Literary Fund (1989), as well as the S. Piętak Prize (1991). He moved to Warsaw in 1990. He published numerous poems, articles and reviews as a regular contributor to the monthly "Twórczość" (from 1988; likewise under the alias J.D.; he was editor of the poetry section from 1996), the daily newspaper "Rzeczpospolita" (between 1993 and 2005 he served on the editorial board; likewise using the alias J.D.; he was subsequently secretary of the cultural department and the supplements "Plus Minus" and "Rzecz o Książkach"; he also published a regular column between 1997 and 2009 titled "Półka z poezją" [Poetry shelf]), and to the literary magazine "Książki" (from 2000; including pieces under the alias (J.D.)). His reviews, columns and poems also appeared in the weekly "Itd" (1990), "Polityka" (1990 and 1992-94), the Bydgoszcz-based "Ilustrowany Kurier Polski" (after 1990; including a regular column "Warszawski zaułek" [Warsaw nooks and crannies]), the bi-weekly "Atak" (1991), "Gazeta Wyborcza" (1991-92), "Nowa Europa" (1991-93), "Sycyna" (1994-96), "Tygodnik Powszechny" (1997-98 and 2000-2005), "Odra" (2005 and 2014), "Topos" (2006-07, 2014-15, and 2017), "Wyspa" (since 2011), "Akcent" (2014), "Fraza" (2014; including the regular column Dni.(Zapiski pięćdziesięciopięciolatka) [Days. Notes of a fifty-five year-old]), "Zeszyty Literackie" (2014, 2016), and "Nowa Dekada Krakowska" (2017). Between 2005 and 2012 he was editor-in-chief at the Czytelnik publishing cooperative. He started collaborating with the Manuscripts Department (Zakład Rękopisów) at the National Library in Warsaw in 2013. In 2014, he received the Ryszard Milczewski-Brun Symbolic Prize (Symboliczna Nagroda Ryszarda Milczewskiego-Bruna) for his literary criticism. In 2016, he was made chair of the jury of the City of Warsaw Literary Prize (Nagroda Literacka m.st. Warszawy) and a member of the jury of the Orfeusz K.I. Gałczyński Poetry Prize (Nagroda Poetycka im. K.I. Gałczyńskiego – Orfeusz). In 2017, he received the Polish Chamber of Books' (Polska Izba Książki) special award in the Pikowy Laur Competition awarded at the twenty-first International Book Fair in Krakow. He began teaching workshops in creative writing on the Literary-Artistic Programme (Szkoła Pisarzy) in the Faculty of Polish Studies at UJ and in Masterclasses (Szkoła Misztrów) at the Institute of Polish Literature at the University of Warsaw. He was awarded the silver Cross of Merit in 2005 and the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis in 2015. For his work in popularizing Italian culture and the Italian language he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana) by the President of the Republic of Italy and the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2008.

His son, Adam was born in 1982. He lives in Warsaw.