(born in 1957) poet and writer. Both her debuts: poetic (List do królika doświadczalnego [Letter to a Guinea Pig], 1977) and prose (Dziewczyna z zapałkami [Girl with Matches], 2007) should be considered crucial for understanding her work. Emotional tone, imagery embracing carnality and spirituality, attempts to critically approach fairy-tale or archetypal educational patterns, all of the above are the hallmarks of Janko.

Her confrontation with adolescence, not only in language but especially in culture, in the form of girlishness and womanliness drew attention of female readers in particular. Janko critically reads girlish dreams which lead directly into the trap of the obviousness of marriage. The story of Ha. from Girl with matches is a story of a long (and painful) path of reaching one’s own voice, which allows one to attempt to consciously build one’s identity. Having mastered linguistic precision, Janko, in her prose, is able to successfully bring about what she genuinely cares to convey. The discomfort so clearly felt while reading her autobiographical Mała zagłada (Little Apocalypse) forces the readers to take a journey into the past of both the heroes of the book (especially the heroines: Teresa Ferenc – child, Teresa Ferenc – adult, but keeping herself from many years ago in a trap of immaturity, as a few-year-old child, the witness of extermination of her native village, as well as her daughter, Anna Janko, who, growing up, tries to free herself from the influence of the past, choosing to tell a tale as a helpful tool) as well as one’s own. Little Apocalypse read as a trigger to expanding knowledge about contemporary Polish history shows that historical narrative is always a narrative ("only" or "as much as"). None of the versions of the so-called big history is final. Versions and understatements, unrepresented history of the majority of male and female citizens are the themes raised in the latest book by Anna Janko. Fear stored in genes, inherited suffering, and emotionally injured adult children are common experiences as they are personal.

Janko uses the achievements of the second wave of feminism, emphasising that what is private is also political. The therapeutic dimension of Janko's personal story exceeds the limits of the history of a particular family, of the relationship of a specific mother and daughter. For Anna Janko has constructed a multipurpose text: Little Apocalypse resonates politically and publicly and it can be used for personal work in relations other than those related to the extermination of the village Sochy (the native village of Teresa Ferenc, the mother of the writer). It is in this multitasking and multidimensionality that one can discern the sources of success of the latest book by Janko, which can be read as a tale of "people" and "for people".

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Poetry:

• List do królika doświadczalnego, Wydawnictwo Morskie, Gdańsk, 1977.
• Wykluwa się staruszka, Wydawnictwo Morskie, Gdańsk, 1979.
• Diabłu świeca, Wydawnictwo Morskie, Gdańsk, 1980.
• Koronki na rany, Wydawnictwo Morskie, Gdańsk, 1988.
• Zabici czasem długo stoją, Ośrodek Kultury i Sztuki, Wrocław, 1995.
• Świetlisty cudzoziemiec, Prószyński i S-ka, 2000.
• Wiersze z cieniem, Wydawnictwo Nowy Świat, Warszawa, 2010

Fiction:

• Dziewczyna z zapałkami, Wydawnictwo Nowy Świat, Warszawa, 2007.
• Pasja według św. Hanki, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2012.
• Boscy i nieznośni: niezwykłe biografie, Wydawnictwo „Zwierciadło”, Warszawa 2012.
• Maciupek i Maleńtas. Niezwykłe przygody w Brzuchu Mamy (illustrated by Artur Gulewicz), Wydawnictwo „Nasza Księgarnia”, Warszawa, 2012.
• Mała zagłada, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2015.