Wioletta Grzegorzewska, or Wioletta Greg (1974) is a Polish poet and writer nominated for The Man Booker Prize.
Life Wioletta born in Koziegłowy, lived in a small village Rzeniszów in Jurassic Highland in Poland. In 2006, she left her country and moved to England, to the Isle of Wight. She spent there ten years in Ryde. She lives now in Lewes.
Works
Between 1998 – 2012 she published several poetry volumes, novels as well as a novella Swallowing Mercury, in which she's covering her childhood and the experience of growing up in Communist Poland. Senior editor Max Porter from Portobello Books said: Swallowing Mercury"Wo Borkenkäfer Völkerball spielen: Wioletta Grzegorzewskas Guguły", Novinki. is an enchanting and intriguing book. Wioletta Greg is a poet and every line of this haunting autobiographical novella has its own weird, beautiful atmosphere. It reminded me of Evie Wyld, Ludmila Petrushevskaya and Herta Muller."Joshua Farrington, "Greg novella to Portobello", The Bookseller, 11 March 2015. Greg's short stories and poemsBrittany Krier, "A review of Wioletta Greg’s Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance (Arc Publications, 2014)", 3 February 2015. have been published in: Asymptote,"Translation Tuesday: On the River Boży Stok by Wioletta Greg", Asymptote, 8 December 2015. The Guardian,"Translation Tuesday: On the River Boży Stok by Wioletta Greg", The Guardian, 8 December 2015. Litro Magazine, Poetry Wales, Wasafiri, The White Review.Wioletta Greg, "The Bees", The White Review, January 2016.
Her poetry book Finite Formulae & Theories of Chance has been shortlisted for the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize. "Finite Formulae & Theories of Chance shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize!"]. The judges said: "These poems retain the force of first experience and, equally, a collection of history’s remains. Greg’s thoughts include the catastrophe of the 20th century whose marks still wobble before her eyes, and the experience of living in post-Communist Poland. This stunning collection shows us (mostly through the eyes and memories of childhood) a world of objects transported across years. ‘Tossing satin bulbs into wicker baskets,’ the child poet is at ease with the earth and the hardy objects made from it. Greg grants us the privilege of seeing what she saw before she saw more."
In 2012 an Arts Council-funded audio recording project of the British Library, Between Two Worlds: Poetry and Translation, recorded her poetry. Her poems have been translated into English, Italian, German, Catalan,"Lliçons de natació" Serbian, Spanish, and Welsh.
Books Poetry Wyobraznia kontrolowana, Częstochowa, 1998 Parantele, Częstochowa, 2003 Orinoko, Tychy, 2008. Inne obroty, Polish-Canadian Publishing Fund and Fraza, Toronto and Rzeszów, 2010, Ruchy Browna, Częstochowa, 2011 Smena's Memory. Collected Poems, London: Off_Press, 2011. Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance, Arc Publications 2014, (shortlisted for the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize Czasy zespolone, Wydawnictwo Eperons-Ostrogi, Krakow 2017,
Prose Notatnik z wyspy, Częstochowa, 2012. Swallowing Mercury, Portobello Books, London 2017 (shortlisted for Man Booker International Prize, Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Accommodations, Transit Books Dodatkowa dusza, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Wilcza rzeka, Wydawnictwo W.A.B, Tajni dyrygenci chmur, Wydawnictwo W.A.B
Anthologies Scattering the Dark: An Anthology of Polish Women Poets, ed. Karen Kovacik, Buffalo, New York: White Pine Press, 2015.
Awards for books Longlisted for The Man Booker International Prize; Swallowing Mercury (Portobello Books, translated by Eliza Marciniak); Shortlisted for The National Translation Award, Swallowing Mercury, trans. by Eliza Marciniak; Shortlisted for The Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada, Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance (Arc Publications, translated by Marek Kazmierski); Shortlisted for The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in the United Kingdom, Swallowing Mercury; Shortlisted for The Michalski Prize in Switzerland, Swallowing Mercury; Shortlisted for The Nike Award in Poland, Guguły; Shortlisted for The Gdynia Award in Poland, Guguły; Shortlisted for The Prix Pierre-François Caillé in France, Les Fruits encore verts (the Editions Intervalles, translated by Nathalie Le Marchand): Award of the City Czestochowa in Poland in the fields of culture.
References
External links Profile in Culture.pl Works on Emigrating Landscapes Project Selected Poems in European Literature Night Poem Thirteen, in a Gulag, 1950