poet, literary critic, editor, and journalist. He was born in Kruszwica in 1958. Graduate of Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University, where he was employed as an assistant (1982-1984). He also worked in the publishing house “Pomorze” in Bydgoszcz (1984-1989), and he was a journalist at “ITD” (1990), “Nowa Europa” (1992-1993), and “Rzeczpospolita” (1993-2005). He was the editor in chief of Czytelnik publishing cooperative (2005-2012). His compilation included a selection of lyric poetry by Juliusz Słowacki, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Stanisław Grochowiak, and Edward Stachura. As a poet, he made his debut in “Życie Literackie” (1979), on the pages of which his first literary critical review was also published (1985). Janusz Drzewucki won many important awards, including the Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna Award (1988), the Stanisław Wyspiański Award (1989), the Stanisław Piętak Award (1991), as well as the Cyprian Kamil Norwid and Ryszard Milczewski-Bruno Award (2014). Since 1996, he’s been a member of the editorial team and the editor of the poetry division at the monthly “Twórczość”. He lives in Warsaw.

Drzewucki's poetry is characterised by generic and stylistic diversity, and both inspiration by neoclassicism in the choice of the intricate form of poems, as well as an unrestrained approach to prevailing literary tradition and its innovative transformation.

Critics emphasise the peculiar polyphony of his lyric poetry, combining seemingly contradictory categories, such as the rhetoric of speech and colloquial language, realism and surreal elements, seriousness counterpointed by humour or irony. Drzewucki’s poetry, understood in a cross-sectional way, is characterised by evolution in the sphere of the author's attitude: ‘classicist poet of anxiety’ (K. Lisowski), known mainly from Ulica reformacka (Reformed Street) and Starożytny język (Ancient Language), with time becomes a poet with many lyrical visages: a stoic coming to terms with the natural course of things, an observer of the world's charms, a satirical commentator on public and literary matters, etc. (Światło września [September’s Light], Dwanaście dni [Twelve Days], Rzeki Portugalii [The Rivers of Portugal]). A significant feature of this work is also internal dynamics, through which concentrated, sparing poems, for example, adjoin narrative poems, and rhythmic course is interspersed with unapparent enjambement.

The constant thematic motif of his work is the motif of journey, exposed in a significant way for the first time in Podróż na południe (Journey to the South), introducing to the work questions, full of cultural references, of evanescence, fragility of existence, but also accepting fate courageously, accepting life seen as the coexistence of antinomy.

Parallel to his poetic work, Drzewucki engages in literary criticism. Over the years, he has developed his distinctive style, free from the bulk and hermeticism of academic criticism, characterised instead by clarity of expression and literary mastery. He writes mainly about poetry and (less often) prose of authors of various generations and aesthetics, doing justice not only to recognised creators (including J. Iwaszkiewicz, Z. Herbert, T. Różewicz, W. Szymborska, J. Hartwig, A. Zagajewski, St. Barańczak, W. Gombrowicz, W. Myśliwski), but also to those forgotten for diverse reasons (for example Wł. Szymanowicz, and T. Gluziński). In the published collections of sketches Chaos i konwencja (Chaos and Convention), Smaki słowa (Flavours of a Word), Akropol i cebula. O Zbigniewie Herbercie (Acropolis and Onion. About Zbigniew Herbert), Stan skupienia (Matter of State), Charakter pisma (Handwriting), and Środek ciężkości (Centre of Gravity) the author draws attention to the literary individualism and inventivity of artistic talent, which are, for him, one of the most important criteria for the evaluation of the works in question. As a literary critic, he shuns any scheduling and he does not designate any literary obligations (social, political, religious, etc.), convinced of the need to defend its right to irrefutable autonomy.

Janusz Drzewucki’s poems and literary criticism texts have been translated to the following foreign languages: English, Swedish, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, and Serbian.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Poetry:

• Ulica Reformacka. Wiersze z lat 1980-1986, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1988.
• Starożytny język, Toruńskie Towarzystwo Kultury, 1989.
• Podróż na południe, Oficyna Cracovia, 1995; jako: Podróż na południe. Wiersze z lat 1986-1995: Oficyna Cracovia 1997.
• Światło września. 77 wierszy dawnych i nowych, Świat Literacki, 1998.
• Wiersze wybrane, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, 2010.
• Dwanaście dni, Iskry, 2013.
• Rzeki Portugalii, Biblioteka „Toposu”, 2016.

Prose:

• Życie w biegu. O ludziach, miejscach, literaturze, piłce nożnej, maratonach i całej reszcie, Wydawnictwo Melanż, 2015.

Literary Criticism:

• Chaos i konwencja, Krakowskie Wydawnictwo Akademickie „Alma Art”, 1988.
• Smaki słowa. Szkice o poezji, Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1999.
• Akropol i cebula. O Zbigniewie Herbercie, Tikkun, 2004.
• Stan skupienia. Teksty o prozie, Wydawnictwo Forma, 2014.
• Charakter pisma. Szkice o polskiej poezji współczesnej, Instytut Książki, 2015.
• Środek ciężkości. Szkice o współczesnej liryce polskiej, Instytut Mikołowski, 2016.
• Lekcje u Różewicza. Teksty krytycznoliterackie i osobiste, Warstwy, Wrocław 2018.