New York, May 30, 2012 —The Polish Cultural Institute New York and the Polish Book Institute in Kraków are proud to announce their new effort to bring Polish literature to the American public at BookExpo America (BEA) by marketing books in English by Polish authors to US booksellers, promoting and supporting the translation of Polish literature into English through the © POLAND program and the Found in Translation Award, and facilitating the trade in international rights between Polish and US publishers. 2012 is proving to be a banner year for Polish literature in English translation with the announcement of Wiesław Myśliwski’s great modern rural epic, Stone Upon Stone (trans. Bill Johnston, Archipelago Books, 2011), as the winner of this year’s Best Translated Book Award from the Three Percent blog at the University of Rochester and Amazon.com, and with Tadeusz Różewicz’s collection Sobbing Superpower (trans. Joanna Trzeciak, W.W. Norton, 2011) shortlisted for the international Griffin Poetry Prize (winner to be announced June 7).
Polish author Wilhelm Dichter will read from his autobiographical novels, God’s Horse and The Atheists’ School (trans. Madeline G. Levine, Northwestern University Press 2012), both nominated for Poland’s prestigious Nike prize, at the convention and in a public event at the Polish Consulate General in New York. In spare, precise prose, Dichter recounts the harrowing tale of a family’s Holocaust struggle and their postwar lives among Poland’s political elite. The author depicts the tensions between dedicated Jewish Communists and Polish Jews who feared another seemingly inevitable tragedy, between ideologues and pragmatists, between Polish patriots and their Soviet masters.
Poland has a rich literary tradition dating to the Renaissance and has garnered four Nobel prizes in literature. It has been at the crossroads of twentieth-century history and has seen over two decades of economic, social, and cultural progress since the fall of the Berlin Wall. As BookExpo America becomes a more international fair, growing beyond its origins in the American Booksellers Association convention, Poland brings new writers and fresh ideas that carry the weight of history to American readers.
WHAT: Poland at BookExpo
WHEN: June 5-7, 2012
WHERE: Booth #2451, Javits Center, 11th Ave. bet 34th and 39th Streets New York, NY
ADMISSION: http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/Register-Now/
DIRECTIONS: http://www.javitscenter.com/Default.aspx?cmsid=40
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.polishculture-nyc.org
WHAT: Wilhelm Dichter reading at BookExpo America – with translator, Prof. Madeline G. Levine, and Editor, Mike Levine, Northwestern University Press
WHEN: Wednesday, June 6, 2012, 1-1:30 pm
WHERE: Javits Center: Uptown Stage, 11th Ave bet 34th and 39th Streets New York, NY
ADMISSION: Free with BEA admission.
DIRECTIONS: http://www.javitscenter.com/Default.aspx?cmsid=40
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.polishculture-nyc.org
WHAT: Wilhelm Dichter: Public reading – with translator, Prof. Madeline G. Levine, and Editor, Mike Levine, Northwestern University Press
WHEN: Wednesday, June 6, 2012, 7 pm
WHERE: Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, 233 Madison Ave. (at 37th St.), New York, NY
ADMISSION: Free and open to the public. RSVP required – [email protected]
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.polishculture-nyc.org
The POLISH CULTURAL INSTITUTE NEW YORK, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission to the United States serving under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
The Institute’s mission is to build, nurture and promote cultural ties between the United States and Poland by presenting Polish culture to American audiences and by connecting Polish artists and scholars to American institutions, introducing them to their professional counterparts in the United States, and facilitating their participation in contemporary American culture.
The Institute has been producing and promoting a broad range of cultural events in theater, music, film, literature, the humanities, and visual arts. Among its American partners are such distinguished organizations as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; Brooklyn Academy of Music; The Museum of Modern Art; The Jewish Museum; The PEN American Center; The Poetry Society of America; National Gallery of Art; Yale University; Columbia University; Princeton University; Harvard Film Archive; CUNY Graduate Center; Julliard School of Music; The New Museum; La MaMa E.T.C.; and many more. Our programs have included American presentations of works by such luminaries as filmmakers Roman Polanski, Andrzej Wajda and Jerzy Skolimowski; writers Czesław Miłosz , Adam Zagajewski and Wisława Szymborska; composers Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Lutosławski and Mikołaj Górecki; theatre directors Krystian Lupa, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor and Grzegorz Jarzyna; visual artists Krzysztof Wodiczko, Katarzyna Kozyra, Artur Żmijewski; and many other important artists, writers, historians, scholars, musicians, and performers.
THE POLISH BOOK INSTITUTE (Instytut Książki) is a national institution established in Krakow by the Polish Ministry of Culture in 2004. The Institute’s basic aims are to popularize books and reading within Poland, as well as to promote Polish literature worldwide. These aims are accomplished by:
• promoting the best Polish books and their authors;
• educational activities designed to encourage regular book reading;
• introducing Polish literature abroad;
• organizing research visits for translators;
• increasing the number of translations from Polish into foreign languages through the © POLAND Translation Program; and
• making information on Polish books and the Polish publishing market accessible to foreign consumers.
The Polish Book Institute presents Polish books at national and international book fairs, arranges appearances by Polish writers at literary festivals, participates in programs designed to promote Polish culture worldwide, publishes catalogues of “New Books from Poland”, runs study and educational activities, and sets up meetings and seminars for translators of Polish literature.