Born in Wysokie Mazowiecki in 1960, she studied at Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and graduated from the Screenwriting Studium at the State Film School in Lodz. She writes poetry, novels, short stories, radio dramas and plays.

Her first novel, That Summer in Zawrocie, which won the Zysk/Swiat Ksiazki Prize for best Polish novel of the Year in 1997. Kowalewska's stories are subtle, poetic and suggestive. They contain no historical or geographic references and nothing concrete, but rather depict a world of subjective emotion with a logic ruled by emotions. In Hanna Kowalewska's novel, all the features of her earlier prose and poetry are present but are now subject to the rigors of a clear fabular scheme. The protagonist has inherited an old-fashioned country house from her grandmother and discovers a diary that enables her slowly to discover the secret of her grandmother's life, which was connected with events in the post-war history of Poland. At the same time, the younger woman comes to a better understanding of herself, and also of the romantic, or rather erotic, relationship in which she is involved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Winoroślinność, Warszawa: KKMP "Okolice", 1998.
• Kapelusz z zielonymi jaszczurkami, Warszawa: Przedświt, 1995.
• Anna tłumaczy świat, Warszawa: SKKP Okolice, 1990.
• Tego lata, w Zawrociu, Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 1998.
• Letnia akademia uczuć, Warszawa: W.A.B., 2000.
• Julita i huśtwaki, Poznań: Zysk 2003.
• Góra śpiących węży, Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 2006.
• Maska Arlekina, Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 2006.
• Inna wersja życia, Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 2010.
• Przelot bocianów, Poznań: Zysk i S-ka, 2011.
• Tam, gdzie nie sięga już cień, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2015

TRANSLATIONS

German:

• Polnische Sonate [Tego lata, w Zawrociu], München: Claassen, 2000; München: Ullstein-Taschenbuchverl., 2002.

Italian:

• Quell'estate a Zawrocie [Tego lata, w Zawrociu], trans. Barbara Delfino, Edizioni del Gorgo, 2008.