Born in 1981 in Katowice. Philosophy and archaeology graduate at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, essayist, literary critic, prose writer and editor. In 2010, she defended her doctoral thesis at the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow. Between 2011-2017 she worked as a lecturer at the Pontifical University of John Paul II.

She made her debut on the pages of “Topos” in 2004. She gained recognition from the critics mainly as an author of erudite, subtle, and innovative essays on the relations of art, religion, and existence, which refer to the essayist tradition of Herbert, Herling-Grudziński and Kijowski. Her debut collection of sketches Krew z mlekiem (Blood with milk), which received, inter alia, the Identitas Literary Award and the Feniks Catholic Publishers Association Award, is a story about private fascinations with European and Polish art, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Kwaśnicka’s portraits of artists, sometimes forgotten or little-known, as well as insightful analyses of literary, painterly, and architectural works remind us of the spiritual and metaphysical sources of European culture, its Christian foundations, and they often become an excuse for existential and theological reflection. On the other hand, Jadwiga, awarded Skrzydła Dedala Literary Awards (Daedalus’ Wings Literary Award) by the National Library, is not only an essayistic biography of the eponymous heroine, a catholic saint, the Queen of Poland, and at the same time an independent and outstanding woman, but also a portrait of Cracow as well as a polemic against romantic tradition.

In 2020 Kwaśnicka won Marek Nowakowski Literary Award for Pomyłka, a collection of short stories published in 2019.

Kwaśnicka practices literary criticism. She is also an author of essays and short stories published in the press. She published in “The Tablet”, “Topos”, “Arcana”, “Fronda”, “Nowy Napis” “44/Czterdzieści i Cztery”, and “Akcent”, to name a few. She is a “Młoda Polska” (‘Young Poland’) Programme scholar. She published two scientific monographs on the history of the Society of Jesus.

– Maciej Urbanowski

BIBLIOGRAPHY          

Essays:

• Krew z mlekiem, Warszawa: Teologia Polityczna, 2014.
• Jadwiga, Warszawa: Teologia Polityczna, 2015.

Scientific papers/Theses:

• Niedokończona dyskusja...: dziewiętnastowieczna polemika katolicko-prawosławna między Iwanem Gagarinem SJ i Aleksym S. Chomiakowem, Kraków: Wydawnictwo UJ, 2008 (together with Leszek Augustyn).
• Wtórna kolonizacja: rola gatunku literacko-muzycznego villancico w ewangelizacji Indian Moxo, Poznań: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza Wydział Teologiczny. Redakcja Wydawnictw, 2010.

Prose:

• Pomyłka, Tyniec Wydawnictwo Benedyktynów, Cracow 2019 (collection of stories)