(b. 1957), a theatrologist and literary historian by education, is a poet, an admired reporter, and a writer who specializes in non-fictional, personally engaged biographies (of women in particular).

Tuszyńska's very first book (a biography of actress Maria Wisnowska) clearly indicated her field of interest: problems with memory. Tuszyńska is not only sensitive to things that are erased from memory, but also to gaps in memory, omissions, blind spots, or memories weighed down by infamy. In every form of her writing (in her poetry, non-fiction prose, memoir editing, academic and monograph publications) Tuszyńska broadens our understanding of factors that affect how we remember and evaluate people's behavior, how we marginalize significant achievements, as well as shame, and deprecation. Tuszyńska's creative work as a whole strives to save the world from terrible annihilation, in this case from oblivion: the Holocaust, loss, mourning, infamy, forgetfulness, postmemory, and affects are the key motifs and main themes of Tuszyńska's work. Tuszyńska looks at her (mainly female) protagonists from as unbiased a perspective as possible, yet one that is close, attentive, and keenly interested. The reporter and biographer attempts to be as just as possible to the figures to whom she devotes her various books. This means she engages less in the creation of hagiography than in empathic portraiture.

Tuszyńska is a precursor not only of a feminist “rewriting of history,” but also for showing the essential links between a “minor,” private history and a shared History. Her two most personal prose books, i.e. Family History of Fear (2005) and Exercises in Loss (2007) are family histories and valuable post-memory voices from the “second generation of survivors.” The first is a story of Tuszyńska's family home and her path to learning of the fates of her parents: Bogdan Tuszyński, a sports historian and reporter, and Halina Przedborska, a journalist. The latter is a testimony to love and accompaniment through the illness and final departure of Henryk Dasko, the writer's husband. Both books are also histories of the twentieth century in Central Europe in the shadow of the Holocaust. Tuszyńska shows how much can be achieved through adopting the private perspective, and how much can be lost by adopting the general view, divorced from personal experience. 

Tuszyńska attempts to regain memory of powerful and important female figures in Polish culture, as we see as well in her books not solely devoted to women (for example, The Tyrmands: An American Romance, where she shined a light on the traditionally marginalized figure of Mary Ellen Fox, with whom Leopold Tyrmand started a family in the United States, spending the rest of his life at her side). To date, apart from the aforementioned Wisnowska, she has written books about Irena Krzywicka (The Long Life of a Seductress, 1999), Wiera Gran (Wiera Gran The Accused, 2010), and Józefina Szelińska (Schulz's Fiancée: Apocrypha, 2015). Each of these figures might be called an icon of modern femininity: creative, defying social taboos, independent, and paying a high price for their choice of freedom in a patriarchal society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• I znowu list. Warszawa: Oficyna Poetów, 1990.
• Wisnowska. Warszawa: WAiF, 1990.
• Rosjanie w Warszawie. Warszawa: Interim, 1992.
• Wyznania gorszycielki. Pamiętniki Ireny Krzywickiej. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1992.
• Zamieszkałam w ucieczce. Lublin: Kresy, 1993.
• Kilka portretów z Polską w tle. Reportaże izraelskie. Gdańsk: Marabut, 1993.
• Singer. Pejzaże pamięci. Gdańsk: Marabut, 1994.
• Wygrać każdy dzień. Warszawa: Diana, 1996.
• Adresat nieznany. Warszawa: Diana 1998.
• Długie życie gorszycielki. Losy i świat Ireny Krzywickiej, Warszawa: Iskry, 1999.
• Maria Wisnowska. Jeśli mnie kochasz - zabij!, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Książkowe Twój Styl, 2003
• Miejsce przy oknie, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Nowy Świat, 2004
• Rodzinna historia lęku, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2005.
• Ćwiczenia z utraty, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2007.
• Krzywicka. Długie życie gorszycielki, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2009.
• Oskarżona: Wiera Gran, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2010
• Tyrmandowie. Romans amerykański, Warszawa, Wydawnictwo MG, 2012
• Wiera. Dramat w sześciu obrazach (with Jerzy Żurek), "Dialog" 11/2013 (684)
• Narzeczona Schulza, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2015.
• Jamnikarium, Wydawnictwo MG, Warszawa 2016.
• Bagaż osobisty. Po Marcu, Dom Spotkań z Historią, Warszawa 2018.

TRANSLATIONS

Czech:

• Singer. Krajiny pameti [Singer. Pejzaże pamięci], transl. Vlasta Dvorackova, Jinočany: H&H Vysehradska, 2006.

Dutch:

• Vera Gran. De zangeres van het getto van Waschau [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. Liesbeth van Nes, Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2011.​​​​​​​

English:

• Lost Landscapes: In Search of Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Jews of Poland [Singer. Pejzaże pamięci], transl. Madeline Levine. New York: William Morrow, 1998.
• Vera Gran The accused [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. from French Charles Ruas, New York: Knopf. Random House, Inc., 2013.
• Family History of Fear [Rodzinna Historia Lęku], transl. from French Charles Ruas. New York: Knopf. Random House, Inc., 2016.

French:

• Les disciples de Schulz [Uczniowie Schulza], transl. Margot Carlier, Grażyna Erhard, Montricher [Paris]: Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc, 2001.
• Singer. Paysages de la mémoire [Singer. Pejzaże pamięci], transl. Jean Yves Erhel, Montricher [Paris]: Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc, 2002.
• Une histoire familiale de la peur [Rodzinna historia lęku], transl. Jean-Yves Erhel, Paris: Grasset & Fasquelle, 2006.
• Exercices de la perte [Ćwiczenia z utraty], transl. Jean-Yves Erhel. Paris: Grasset & Fasquelle, 2009.
• L'Accusée: Wiera Gran [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. Isabelle Jannès-Kalinowski, Grasset & Fasquelle, 2011.
• La fiancée de Bruno Schulz [Narzeczona Schulza], transl., Isabelle Jannès-Kalinowski, Grasset & Fasquelle, 2015.​​​​​​​

German:

• Die Sängerin aus dem Ghetto: Das Leben der Wiera Gran [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. from French Xenia Osthelder, Berlin: Insel Verlag, 2013.​​​​​​​

Greek:

• Viera Gkran : bī katīgoroumenī [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. from French Thomas Skassis, Athī́na: Rachel Kapon 2011.​​​​​​​

Hebrew:

• Vera Gran [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. from French Arieh Uriel, Or Yehuda: Kinneret, 2012.​​​​​​​

Italian:

• Wiera Gran: l'accusata [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. Margherita Botto, Torino: Einaudi, 2012.​​​​​​​

Korean:

• Ćwiczenia z utraty, DD World, 2011.​​​​​​​

Macedonian:

• Obwinieta: Wjera Gran [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. Milica Mirkulowska, Skopje: Antolog, 2015.
• Narzeczona Schulza, transl. Milica Mirkulowska, Skopje: Antolog, 2016.​​​​​​​

Slovenian:

• Obtožena: Wiera Gran [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. Tatjana Jamnik, Gorenja vas: Modrijan, 2015.

Spanish:

• La cantante del gueto de Varsovia. Wiera Gran, la acusada [Oskarżona: Wiera Gran], transl. Íñigo Sánchez Paños, Elena-Michelle Cano, Madrid: Alianza Literaria, 2011.​​​​​​​

Ukrainian:

• Narzeczona Schulza, transl. Wiera Meniok, Czerniowice: Wydawnictwo 21, 2018.