GUZE Joanna

Born on 30 November 1917 in Żytomierz (now Ukraine); daughter of the doctor Ignacy Guze and the teacher Łucja, née Szaynowska. She attended school in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), where she was initially a pupil at the Juliusz Słowacki Private Girls' Secondary School before moving to the Z. Strzałkowska Private Girls' Secondary School, where she completed her advanced secondary education in 1935. From 1937 she studied the history of art and philosophy at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwów. Following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, she continued her studies at the History Faculty of the same university, which the Ukrainian authorities renamed the Ivan Franko University. She left for the depths of the Soviet Union in 1941 following the outbreak of the German-Soviet War. She reached the Krasnodar area where she was sent to work on a kolkhoz (collective farm). She later managed to leave for Tashkent, where she wanted to continue her education. However, her existing studies were considered sufficient to be awarded a degree from the local university. She thus found employment in a textile factor while in 1943 she went to work on the construction of the hydroelectric power station on the Amu Darya river in the town of Begovat. She returned to Poland as part of the ranks of the First Polish Army, in which she served as an educational officer. She initially worked at the Cultural Institute in Lublin, followed by Krakow's municipal administration where she was also responsible for cultural affairs. She moved to Lodz in 1946. She collaborated with the weekly "Kuźnica", where she made here debut as a translator with a Polish version of an excerpt of Anatoli Vinogradov's novel Three Colours of Time (1946, no. 36) and a section of E. Delacroix's memoir (1947, no. 48). She continued to publish translations of Russian and French prose and drama. She visited France on many occasions and during one trip to Paris in 1947/48 she attended École de Louvre. At the same time, she started publishing articles and art criticism in "Kuźnica" (to 1949), then in "Nowa Kultura" (1952–60) and "Świat" (1952–55). She moved to Warsaw in 1949. She joined the Polish Writers' Union (ZLP) in 1952, remaining a member until its dissolution in 1983. She joined the Translators' Section of the Polish PEN Club from 1957, becoming a full member of the club in 1965. Between 1961 and 1972, she published reviews in the periodical "Film". She became a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI). In the 1960s and 1970s she worked with Polish Radio as an author and adapter of radio plays, likewise of those aimed at young people and children. She was involved in the activities of the independent Society for Scientific Courses (Towarzystwo Kursów Naukowych – TKN) in 1978. For her work as a translator she received the Polish PEN Club Prize in 1975, the Polish Society of Authors and Composers (ZAiKS) Prize in 1984 and the Polish Literary Translators Association (Stowarzyszenie Tłumaczy Polskich) Prize in 1986, giving the later to the Society for the Blind (Towarzystwo Opieki nad Ociemniałymi) in Laski. She was part of the Founding Committee of the Association of Polish Writers (SPP) in 1989 before becoming a regular member. In the 1990s and 2000s she published translations and reviews in periodicals including "Zeszyty Literackie" and "Tygodnik Powszechny". For her work as a translator, she received the 1997 Alfred Jurzykowski Prize in New York, the Prize of the Minister of Culture in 2003 and the honorary Order of the Polish Society of Authors and Composers (ZAiKS) in 2008, and the Paweł Hertz prize for her work as editor of "Zeszyty Literackie". She received the Gold Cross of Merit in 1975. She is mother of the art historian Justyna Guze (b. 1950). She died on 11 January 2009 in Warsaw, where she is buried at the Powązki Cemetery.