the POLSKI blog

Wrocław is one of five Polish cities – along with Katowice, Lublin, Gdańsk and Warszawa – vying for the title of the European Capital of Culture in 2016. So far only one Polish city – Krakow – enjoyed this privilege in 2000. Each city is obviously trying its best to impress the world and Wrocław [...]

  Those of you who live in London are probably familiar with Poems on the Underground, a Transport for London initiative to display short poems in Tube carriages. From tomorrow, you will also be able to read Polish poetry on London Underground as TfL is celebrating centenary of Czeslaw Milosz – a well-known Polish poet, [...]

Polityka, one of the oldest and best Polish weekly magazines, has launched its Kindle version. I’m not sure whether it’s available for other ereaders too, but the Kindle version is surprisingly good. Polityka – despite its title – doesn’t just focus on politics, but is a high-quality liberal weekly whose topics span a wide range: [...]

Over a year ago I wrote about a project called Cafe Fogg, which revived an old Polish crooner’s music and ‘translated’ it for a modern audience. Projekt Warszawiak (Warszawiak, in Polish, is a person living in Warsaw)  is inspired by – and relies on – music produced by legendary Warsaw-based folk bands like Orkiestra z [...]

The first post in 2011 will be short, but hopefully interesting. I’ve just come across a site for the BBC National Short Story Awards. It’s not a new site, but I thought I’d share a link to it as it also has a short story by a Polish writer, Adam Kaminski. According to the site, [...]

Sad news this morning – Polish composer, Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki, best known for his “Third Symphony”, died in Poland at the age of 76. Born in Silesia, he spent most of his life working and teaching in Katowice, the heart of the most industrialised region in Poland. Until early 1990s he remained largerly unknown, even [...]

My job here is done. Well, not really. But I’m glad to report others have also started discovering – and sharing – Poland beyond its sad history and stereotypical perceptions. I just got an email from a production company inviting me to watch a video series about Poland called “From Poland With Love”. Yes, it [...]

When I say fresh here, I mean new – new to me at least. I’ve discovered  Michał by accident when someone posted a link to this lovely video. Michał talks about his music (in Polish, but with English subtitles) and the clip is illustrated with his fantastic acoustic jazz. According to his site, his debut [...]