Tuesday, February 24, 6:00pm
William Mong Hall, Sidney Sussex College, Sidney Street, Cambridge
We invite you to a discussion with the acclaimed Polish writer Mariusz Szczygieł and translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones about Szczygieł's most recent collection of reportage in English translation, moderated by Cambridge's Professor of Polish Studies, Stanley Bill.
Not There (2025) is a work of literary reportage about loss, absence, and memories from one of Poland’s most celebrated writers. Szczygieł follows a Czech poet, a Ukrainian soldier, a Polish accountant, an Albanian poet, and an Israeli writer as they account for their losses and gains - tracing lost conversations, cheese forks, poems, houses, and lives. With a perfect eye and a voice infused with empathy and wit, Szczygiel explores the human condition with its unavoidable absences.
The event will be followed by a drinks reception. All are welcome.
Mariusz Szczygieł is one of Europe’s most celebrated journalists. A reporter for Gazeta Wyborcza, he is the author of a number of books of reportage about the Czech Republic and Poland, including the acclaimed Gottland (2006). His books have been published in twenty-one countries and have been awarded the Europe Book Prize and the Prix Amphi, among other honours. From 1995–2001, he hosted a popular talk show on Polish television. Szczygieł runs the Institute of Reportage in Warsaw, a creative writing reportage school, and Dowody na Istnienie, an independent publishing house. Not There won the Nike Award and Nike Readers' Award in Poland on publication in 2019.
Antonia Lloyd-Jones translates fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s books from Polish. Her translation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by 2018 Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk was shortlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International prize. For ten years she was a mentor for the Emerging Translators’ Mentorship Programme, and is a former co-chair of the UK Translators Association.
