Book launch: The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories

The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories is a landmark anthology of Polish literature, carefully curated and edited by acclaimed translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Spanning the period from 1918 to the present, the collection brings together 39 stories grouped thematically rather than chronologically, offering fresh perspectives on Polish writing. Widely praised as witty, surprising and essential, the anthology showcases Poland's rich literary tradition. At a special event to launch this book, Antonia Lloyd-Jones will be joined by some of the authors and translators featured in the book to reflect on the collection and to offer insights into the art and challenges of literary translation.

The event is presented in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a state-run institution that brings Polish culture to people around the world: https://iam.pl/en

Photo credit: Marzena Pogorzaly for culture.pl

Antonia Lloyd-Jones is an award-winning translator of Polish literature into English, celebrated for bringing the work of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk and other leading Polish authors to international readers. She has translated novels by Paweł Huelle and Jacek Dehnel, short stories by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, and non-fiction by Jacek Hugo-Bader and Wojciech Jagielski. Recipient of the Transatlantyk Award (2018) and the Found in Translation Award (2009, 2012), she is also a mentor for the Emerging Translator Mentorship programme supported by the Polish Cultural Institute and has served as co-chair of the Translators Association, shaping new generations of literary translators.

You can read more about the collection here: https://culture.pl/en/article/from-the-forgotten-to-the-famous-antonia-lloyd-jones-on-the-penguin-book-of-polish-short-stories

Photo credit: Szymon Roginski

Dorota Masłowska (b. 1983), Polish writer and playwright.

Dorota was 19 when she published her best-selling first novel Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną (Snow White and Russian Red). Translated into over 20 languages, the controversial book earned her critical acclaim and numerous awards (i.a. the 2005 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis). Her second novel Paw Królowej (The Queen’s Peacock, 2005) won Nike, the most important Polish literary prize.

Her first play (A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians, 2006) was staged in Australia, the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Sakhalin. The book-to-movie adaptation is in the works. Her second play (No Matter How Hard We Try, 2008) brought her the Ministry of Culture Prize and was filmed by Grzegorz Jarzyna.

Her novel Inni ludzie (Other People) was made into a movie by Aleksandra Terpińska and had its premiere in 2021 (FIPRESCI Award Tallinn 2021, nominated for the European Film Awards 2022 - European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI). Her latest novel (Magical wound and other stories) came out in the autumn 2024, and it was recently released in Germany (Im Paradies, Rowohlt 2026). Dorota is also author of two LPs (Society is Mean, 2014 and Free time, 2023). She lives in Warsaw, Poland.

Photo credit: Beata Zawrzel

Maciej Miłkowski (born 1980 in Łódź) is a Polish prose writer, translator and essayist. He has published three short story collections – Wist (2014), Drugie spotkanie (2017) and Trzeci dzień świąt (2021) – as well as a novel System Sulta (2019) and an essay collection Anatomia opowiadania (2024), devoted to the craft of short narrative forms.

He works as a psychologist at a secondary school in Kraków. His latest novel, Ostatnia szansa (Last Chance), will be published this spring.

Anna Zaranko’s translations include Władysław Reymont’s Chłopi, Kornel Filipowicz’s Memoir of an Anti-Hero, Janusz Korczak’s Warsaw Ghetto Diary, and Jacenty and Katarzyna Dędek’s album Portrait of the Provinces which charts small-town and rural life in 21st century Poland. She has translated short stories by writers including Leo Lipski, Julia Fiedorczuk and Maciej Płaza, as well as historical texts and literary criticism. She was one of ALTA’s first mentees (in 2015) and twice winner of the Found in Translation Award.

Tul’si (Tuesday) Bhambry was born in Poland and went to school in Germany and India. She moved to the UK and France to study English and French literature, but then fell in love with Witold Gombrowicz and wrote a PhD thesis about him (UCL, 2013). Tuesday’s translation of one of his short stories is included in this collection. In 2015, Tuesday won the Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize for her translation of Maciej Miłkowski’s “The Tattoo,” which is also in this book. Tuesday has translated poetry, prose, comics, and many academic books in the humanities and social sciences. She loves to take on new translation challenges, such as handwritten historical documents. She recently became a sworn translator in Germany and is involved with a pro-bono translation collective supporting refugees in Berlin.