Born in 1979. Poet, essayist, critic. Editor of the literary bimonthly Topos and the art director of the European Poet of Freedom Festival. He has been published in many journals in Poland and abroad: The New Yorker, Boston Review, Agni, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, Poetry London and many more.
His work has been translated into 20 languages. Author of six volumes of poetry: Wypieki (1999), e-mail (2000), mazurek (2002), Te Deum (2005, 2008), Czarny kwadrat (2009), and Pomiędzy (2013).
Winner of numerous awards and scholarships, among others, the Horst Bienek Prize (2014), the Kościelski Prize (2009), the Hubert Burda Prize (2008) and, from Tadeusz Różewicz, the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Culture (2006). He has been nominated for NIKE, the most important Polish literary award (2010).
Laundering dirty money
The coffee machine gives me back seven zlotys,
that’s a whole seven too many. Whose is
this money? I’m wondering whether I should
accept it, because the money might have come: a -
from Satan, b - from God, c - from the Machine.
Behind me there are now several people who will not
hesitate. I decide to give back what isn’t mine,
regretfully I drop the coins into the slot, but they
fall out at the bottom, seemingly the same ones, and yet
they’re different. For these I know are
from God.
translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones