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Jan Stanisław Witkiewicz was honoured with the annual Literary Award of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad based in London.
The writer Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm, PhD, from Wilmington, USA, who is a member of the jury that grants the award, informed the Polish Press Agency (PAP) about the fact that Jan Stanisław Witkiewicz was honoured with the Literary Award of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad for the lifetime achievement of his creative work.
Jan Stanisław Witkiewicz is a writer and publicist, music and ballet critic, photographer, and curator.
"The writer receives the award of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad, the seventieth in its history, for his outstanding contribution to the popularisation of ballet and musical culture in Poland and to the preservation of high artistic standards in the world," the jury announcement stated.
According to the jury's assessment, Jan Stanislaw Witkiewicz's books on ballet, published in Polish and German as well as translated into English, written in a beautiful, clear, and lucid language, have won him recognition and respect among artists all over the world.
According to the jury, the dozens of books he has published place him among the most eminent experts on ballet culture.
Jan Stanisław Witkiewicz was born on 24 June 1955 in Zbąszyń in Greater Poland Voivodeship. Since 1978, he has published in monthly and weekly cultural magazines. In 1994-1998, he worked for the weekly “Wiadomości Kulturalne”, among others as deputy editor-in-chief to Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz; for years, he was also a columnist for Rzeczpospolita daily.
He is also working in the field of artistic photography. Moreover, he has curated exhibitions in Poland, Austria, Germany, and Lithuania. He lived, intermittently, in exile in Switzerland from 1981 to 2002, and has lived in Berlin since 2017. He is a member of the Union of Polish Writers.
Jan Stanisław Witkiewicz is the author of almost forty book publications, which have appeared in Poland and abroad. He started his writing career with the preparation of the volume Witkacy and Witkiewiczowie ("Witkacy and the Witkiewicz Family", Pocublice Publishing House, Bern 1982). He continued this theme fourteen years later with the publication of Portrety Witkacego z kolekcji Jana Stanisława Witkiewicza ("Witkacy's Portraits from the Collection of Jan Stanisław Witkiewicz", Wratislavia Cantas publishing house, Wrocław 1996).
Several other important books in the laureate's output are Leksykon operowy ("Opera Lexicon"), Balet w Polsce ("Ballet in Poland"), W muzycznej przestrzeni ("In Musical Space"), Balet romantyczny w grafice ("Romantic Ballet in Graphics"), Malarze tańca ("Painters of Dance"), Muzyka i taniec ("Music and Dance"). His oeuvre also includes biographical books devoted to such figures as Maria Krzyszkowska, Ewa Michnik, Witold Gruca, Leon Wójcikowski, Vladimir Malakhov, Rudolf Nureyev, Shoko Nakamura, Beatrice Knop, and Dinu Tamazlacaru. Witkiewicz publishes in the Iskry publishing house; he is the author of the largest number of titles published there. He writes in Polish and German.
In 2013, he received an invitation from the publisher Theater der Zeit to prepare an anniversary album summarising ten years of Vladimir Malakhov's work with Germany's largest and one of the world's best ensembles, Staatsballett Berlin. This publication marked the beginning of the Polish writer and columnist's continuing cooperation with this prestigious publisher.
In the 70th year of the existence of the Literary Award of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad based in London, Jan Stanisław Witkiewicz was honoured by a jury composed of: Chairwoman Regina Wasiak-Taylor - President of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad; Rev. Prof. Janusz Ihnatowicz - Houston, USA; Dr. Adam Wierciński - Opole; Dr. Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm -Wilmington, USA.
The Award Ceremony will take place on 29 April 2022 in Wrocław on the International Dance Day.
source: Polish Press Agency (PAP), Anna Bernat