Leszek Engelking

Leszek Engelking was a prominent Polish poet, short story writer, novelist, translator, literary critic, essayist, Polish philologist, and literary academic, scholar, and lecturer. He was born in Bytom in 1955 and spent his childhood in Upper Silesia. He graduated from Warsaw University in 1979 and received his doctorate in 2002 and postdoctoral degree in 2013. He worked as a redactor for the monthly "Literatura na Świecie" from 1984 to 1995, and as a lecturer at Warsaw University, Palacký University, and the University of Łódź. He was a member of the Association of Polish Writers, the Polish PEN Club, and the Société Europeénne de Culture. He translated a vast amount of literature into Polish, from Spanish, English, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Slovak but in particular from Czech. He was awarded several prizes for his translations and literary works, such as the "Literatura na Świecie" Award (1989, 2002, 2008, 2018) and the Polish PEN Club Award (2010). He published collections of poems, short stories, novels, essays, and literary studies. His poems have been translated into several languages, such as Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, and Spanish. He died on October 22, 2022, at the age of 67.