Wioletta Grzegorzewska (b. 1974) is a poet, fiction writer and translator from the English language. She lives in the United Kingdom where she publishes under the pseudonym of Wioletta Greg. Her writing is autobiographical: she describes authentic situations, places, characters, which often form the narrative axis of her work.

This is something one notices already in her volume of verse Orinoko, built around events from the author’s university days. She follows up on this lyrical take with her novel Accommodations [Stancje], which tells the story of a girl who goes to university in a big city. One by one, her subsequent student lodgings constitute turning points in the plot. This coming-of-age diary of sorts is written against the backdrop of the 1990s and cultural changes that accompanied the emergence of a new political and economic order in Poland.

An earlier chapter from the protagonist’s life is the topic of Swallowing Mercury [Guguły], a novel for which Grzegorzewska was longlisted for the Nike Literary Award. Its portrayal of the final years of the Polish People’s Republic, which coincide with Wiola’s childhood, is far from attempts at either demonizing or glorifying that era. It is represented simply as one of many realities, with its dark and bright sides.

The past era’s distinctive cultural elements appear also in the author’s next poetry collection, Brownian Motion [Ruchy Browna]. Street gossip, newspaper articles, news on TV make up the experience of everyday humdrum, punctuated by sensational events of dubious veracity. The volume’s second part is a long poem fashioned as the lyrical subject’s record of life in a convent.

In Pedigrees [Parantele], another book of verse, Grzegorzewska summons people close to her, not only in the sense of family or friendship, but also in the sense of locality and culture. In this book she offers are persuasive vision of a strong yet sensitive womanhood, a quality she finds in women that made history.

In recent years the author has focused on writing fiction. In Secret Conductors of Clouds [Tajni dyrygenci chmur] she travels back to her childhood and early youth, revisiting certain themes of Swallowing Mercury. She describes growing up during late socialism, a time of crisis in economy, with food rationed and youth indoctrinated at school. The reader follows the fortunes and misfortunes of Lola and her family, who live in a fictional village of Hektary. Recounted are the girl’s summer camp and her first love, but also the Chernobyl disaster, which – as the critics have noted – hovers over Hektary like some bad omen.

Grzegorzewska is a laureate of the Polish Books Literary Contest in London. She was shortlisted for Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize, the Nike Literary Award, the Gdynia Literary Award, the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, and the Warwick Prize. Swallowing Mercury, translated by Eliza Marciniak, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Poetry:

• Wyobraźnia kontrolowana, wyd. WSP, Częstochowa 1997
• Parantele, wyd. Bulion, Częstochowa 2003
• Orinoko, Biblioteka Tyskiej Zimy Poetyckiej, Tychy 2008
• Inne obroty, Polski Fundusz Wydawniczy w Kanadzie, Stowarzyszenie Literacko-Artystyczne „Fraza”, Toronto-Rzeszów 2010
• Ruchy Browna, Towarzystwo Literackie „Li-TWA”, Częstochowa 2011
• Czasy zespolone. Wybór wierszy, Kraków, wydawnictwo Eperons-Ostrogi 2017

Fiction:

• Notatnik z wyspy, wydawnictwo e-media, Częstochowa 2012
• Guguły, wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec 2014
• Stancje, wydawnictwo W.A.B., Warszawa 2017
• Dodatkowa dusza, Wydawnictwo Literackie 2020
• Wilcza rzeka, wydawnictwo W.A.B. 2021
• Lola i ptaki, wydawnictwo HarperCollins Polska 2021
• Tajni dyrygenci chmur, wydawnictwo W.A.B 2024

TRANSLATIONS TO OTHER LANGUAGES:

English

• Pamięć Smieny/Smena’s Memory, transl. Marek Kazmierski, OFF Press, Londyn, 2011
• Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance [Formuły skończone i teorie przypadku] transl. Marek Kazmierski, Arc Publications, Todmorden 2014
• Guguły, transl. Anna Blasiak (Hyde) Wasafiri 2014
• Swallowing Mercury [Guguły], transl. Eliza Marciniak, Transit Books, Oakland 2017.
• Accommodations [Stancje], transl. Jennifer Croft, Transit Books, Oakland, California, 2019

French

• Les Fruits encore verts [Guguły], transl. Nathalie Le Marchand, Editions Intervalles, Paryż 2018.