poet, essayist, literary scholar. He was born on 21^st September in Nowy Sącz. A graduate of Polish philology at the University of Łódź, in 2011 he defended his doctoral thesis ‘Lecz ty spomnisz wnuku…  Recepcja literacka Norwida w latach 1939–1956’ (‘But you will remember, grandson…. Reception of Norwid in the years 1939-1956), which received a recognition award in the National Cultural Centre competition for the best PhD dissertation on culture. He is an assistant professor at the Department of Literature and Tradition of Romanticism at the University of Łódź; he is associated with the literary bimonthly magazine "Topos".

He made his debut in 2002 with the volume Süßmayr – śmierć i miłość (Süßmayr - death and love). In subsequent years, the following works were created: Albo – albo (Either – Or) in 2006, Place zabaw ostatecznych (Ultimate Playground) in 2011, Teoria wiersza polskiego (Theory of the Polish Poem) in 2013, Łączka (Grassland) in 2013, Boże Klauny (The Clowns of God) in 2014, Ćwiczenia duchowne. Poematy (Spiritual Exercises. Poems) in 2016.

Parallel to his poetry, Dakowicz's essays were taking form, and they consisted of Helikon i okolice. Notatki o poezji współczesnej (Mount Helicon and the Surroundings. Notes on Contemporary Poetry) from 2008, Obcowanie. Manifesty i eseje (Communion. Manifestos and Essays) from 2014, Przeklęte continuum. Notatnik smoleński (Damned Continuum. Notebook from Smolensk) from 2014, Poeta (bez)religijny. O twórczości Tadeusza Rożewicza ((Non)religious Poet. On the works of Tadeusz Różewicz) from 2015, Afazja polska (Polish Aphasia) from 2015, Afazja polska 2 (Polish Aphasia 2) from 2016. Przemysław Dakowicz's work has been awarded with several important prizes: the K. I. Gałczyński Award ‘Orpheus’, the Franciszek Karpinski Literary Award, and recently the National Library Award "Dedalus Wings".

The writings of the Grassland’s author develop in two streams, the first can be described as eschatological, the second as a story about unsaid, absent threads of collective memory. In the eschatological trend, metaphysical questions intertwine with what Dakowicz describes as "the schizophrenic personality of our time". In the land of the latter, there are not only cases of genius madmen like Van Gogh or Nijinsky, but also dysfunctional figures, touched by demonic madness, like Anneliese Michel or German fraud Liebchen, possessed by the petrification of human bodies.

An insightful observer of contemporary times, a poet, descending from a family with Eastern borderland roots, develops the romantic thought of Mochnacki to be used in the present, according to which literature is a record of the memory of the nation and is the only one that builds something without which the nation cannot exist - community and identity. The community in Dakowicz’s works is etymologically understood as communing. This communing, this community, its identity was annihilated in Poland by two consecutive totalitarianisms; today it is crushed again by ubiquitous relativism. The community suffers from aphasia.

Reconstruction, reminding of what lay in ruins and forgetfulness are the most important mission of poetry today, and more broadly - of literature. In poetry, this mission is performed by Vigilius Lodzensis, created by Dakowicz, transformed from Kierkegaard's literary masks, a cemetery guardian, a memory guardian. Standing at the bedhead of a dying philosopher, Vigilius Lodzensis describes his task, himself, as follows: “I followed him // so as to in room number five / ... / hold him by the hand for a few moments // as well as in front of the aphasia which // he was touched with, speak for him // with my own voice // for someone // must speak. Otherwise, we will all be dead.” (Climacus i sobowtóry [Climacus and Lookalikes]).

In the years of the decline of communism, Zbigniew Herbert adopted the mask of Mr. Cogito, the guardian of our consciences. Przemysław Dakowicz, in the years of the triumphant nihilism of values and the disintegration of the community, adopts an equally important role, the one of the guardian of memory. In this literary programme, poetry accompanies essay writing, and even if this essay writing marks out the essence of the programme, poetry is not its simple realisation, it is an intrinsic value in a great tent of literature spread over Poland for centuries.

The thread connecting the generations, the thread Mochnacki wrote about, is extended within Dakowicz’s works in Theory of the Polish Poem, Grassland, along with Aphasia and Aphasia 2. In poetry, these are tombstones of “Zapora”, Witold Pilecki, Antoni Ossendowski, and the Borychowski family; in essay writing, written down with incredible historical accuracy:  defense of Grodno, martyrdom of Pelplinski and Piaśnica monks,the  mystery of death and honour of Stefan Starzyński and many, many more.

At the same time, not only from literature and historical records does the poet draw material for the construction of a great Polish necropolis, or rather a mausoleum of remembrance. He gets there on his own wherever he can: he is in Pelplin, he spends - no longer as the imaginary Vigilius Lodzensis, but himself, in his physical person - a night in the chapel at Powązki Cemetery with the remains of the Cursed. As he writes himself in the essay Grassland. Introduction to the Semantics of Place:

‘Excavation and identification work carried out in the area of ​​Grassland in recent years is the beginning of a long process of memory recovery by the Polish community. Restoring identity to nameless remains also means tearing the masks off the faces of those who, for decades, claimed to be patriots and ‘saviours of the homeland’, is equivalent to looking into the real, unmistified facade of communism in Poland. Will we be able to face up to this challenge that our own past puts in front of us?  /… / Wherever it should be, let’s remember to have our eyes fixed on Grassland. Because Grassland is Poland. Because Poland is Grassland.’

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Poetry

• Süßmayr, śmierć i miłość, Łódź 2002.
• Albo-Albo, Biblioteka „Toposu”, Sopot 2006.
• Place zabaw ostatecznych, Biblioteka „Toposu”, Sopot 2011.
• Teoria wiersza polskiego, Biblioteka „Toposu”, Sopot 2013.
• Łączka, Arcana, Kraków 2013.
• Boże klauny, Biblioteka „Toposu”, Sopot 2014.
• Ćwiczenia duchowne. Poematy, Sic!, Warszawa 2016.

Essays

• Helikon i okolice. Notatki o poezji współczesnej, Sopot 2008.
• „Lecz ty spomnisz, wnuku”... Recepcja Norwida w latach 1939-1956.Rzecz o ludziach, książkach i historii, Warszawa 2011
• Obcowanie. Manifesty i eseje, Warszawa 2014
• Przeklęte continuum. Notatnik smoleński, Kraków 2014
• Afazja polska, Sic!, Warszawa 2015
• Afazja polska 2, Sic!, Warszawa 2016