born in 1977; prose writer, columnist; author of short stories collections Złe Wybrzeża (Bad Coasts, 1999) Szeroki, głęboki, wymalować wszystko (Wide, Deep, Paint Everything, 2002), Wigilijne psy (Christmas Eve Dogs, 2005) and Nadchodzi (It’s Coming, 2010), novels Horror Show (2006), Tracę ciepło (Losing Heat, 2007) and Święty Wrocław (Saint Wrocław, 2009) and the book Prezes i Kreska. Jak koty tłumaczą sobie świat (Prezes and Kreska. How Cats Explain the World to Themselves 2008); together with Jarosław Urbaniak he wrote a two-volume cycle Pies i klecha (The Dog and the Priest, 2007 and 2008).

Łukasz Orbitowski is considered one of the – or even the best – contemporary horror authors in Poland. He developed his own formula of popular fiction, in which typical horror tropes are mixed, in various proportions, with elements of contemporary fiction and thriller. He started with short stories, some of which were included in collections like Szeroki, głęboki, wymalować wszystko, Wigilijne psy. Orbitowski’s early writing’s characteristic feature was a mixture of horror and contemporary fiction. In the short stories, mostly taking place in Krakow, he interestingly weaves together accurate observations about reality (including the socio-economic problems that young people in Poland faced at the beginning of the 21^st century) with otherworldly eeriness, the urban life reality with the world of ghouls. In other words: he achieved horror by juxtaposing palpable elements of everyday life with strangeness, the ordinary and familiar – with the odd and inexplicable. With time Orbitowski started writing novels and gradually reinvented his writing formula, even though he did not abandon short stories. In the stories such as Tracę ciepło and Święty Wrocław  or in a short stories collection Nadchodzi the writer seems much more occupied with the “twilight zone”, the world of specters and ghouls, mysterious, ancient powers that hides under the lining of reality, influencing the fate of humans. At the same time, in his writing Orbitowski strongly emphasizes ambiguity, ontological uncertainty of “textual worlds”.  In many of them it is not absolutely clear if the parades of specters and grotesque, often terrifying creatures appear as a result of the heroes’ mental problems, or if they actually exist on the fringes of human perception. That is the situation in the titular story from Nadchodzi, in which it is never certain if a demonic house, in which a crime has been committed and which literally chases the narrator’s father for decades, really exists, or if it’s a form of trauma internalization through a fantastical story. The writer also adds numerous cultural references, mixing popular culture tropes with traditional references, particularly to Polish Romantic literature, in an interesting way.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Złe Wybrzeża, Związek Literatów Polskich, Kraków 1999.
• Szeroki, głęboki, wymalować wszystko, Ha!art, Kraków 2001.
• Wigilijne psy, Editio, Gliwice 2005; Sine Qua Non, Kraków, 2016.
• Horror show, Ha!art, Kraków 2006.
• Tracę ciepło, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2007.
• Pies i klecha. Przeciwko wszystkim, Fabryka Słów, Lublin 2007 (wspólnie z Jarosławem Urbaniukiem).
• Prezes i Kreska. Jak koty tłumaczą sobie świat, Powergraph, Warszawa 2008.
• Pies i klecha. Tancerz, Fabryka Słów, Lublin 2008 (wspólnie z Jarosławem Urbaniukiem).
• Święty Wrocław, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2009.
• Nadchodzi, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2010.
• Widma, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2012.
• Szczęśliwa ziemia, Sine Qua Non, Kraków, 2013.
• Zapiski Nosorożca, Sine Qua Non, Kraków, 2014.
• Inna dusza, Od deski do deski, Warszawa, 2015.
• Rzeczy utracone, Zwierciadło, Warszawa 2017.
• Exodus, Sine Qua Non, Kraków 2017.
• Kult, Świat Książki, Warszawa 2019.