Following their highly successful 2018 Polish Poetry Festival, Radość Pisania, Manchester Metropolitan University’s Writing School is having another on Saturday 27 February, this time to celebrate the launch of the Polish language poetry collection at Manchester Poetry Library; and, this time, online.

Poets from the UK and Poland will discuss and respond to work in the collection, from which guests will be making recommendations, with audience members invited to chip in with questions and suggestions.

Guest poets will include Kamila Janiak, Antosh Wojcik and Bohdan Piasecki who will introduce the event. Bohdan is highly-regarded for his work with Apples and Snakes and as a poet, slam champion, translator, Poetry Translation Centre board member and university teacher.

Poland has a rich poetry tradition, with internationally famous poets like Adam Zagajewski, Zbigniew Herbert, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (buried in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery) and Nobel laureates Wisława Szymborska and Czesław Miłosz. Osip Mandelstam, generally considered a Russian poet, was born in Warsaw, which was, at the time of his birth in that part of Poland partitioned by Russia. Miłosz was born in Lithuania (which had been part of the Polish Commonwealth before being partitioned by Russia) yet he considered himself a Polish poet, writing in Polish. It’s complicated! A rich seam for poets.

More details and (free) tickets: Manchester Poetry Library: Polish Language Event Tickets, Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite