Magda Heydel (Co author of the programme)

Lecturer of theory and practice of literary translation at the Faculty of English Language and Literature. MA courses coordinator of Cultural and Literary Translation Studies (the Jagiellonian University of Cracow). A co author of two translation studies anthologies: Współczesne teorie przekładu (Contemporary Translation Theories, 2009) and Polska myśl przekładoznawcza (Polish Translation Studies Thought, 2013), and Chief Editor of “Przekładaniec. A Journal of Translation Studies”. Her newest publication is Gorliwość tłumacza: Przekład poetycki w dziele Czesława Miłosza (Translator’s Zeal. Poetic Translation in the Work of Czesław Miłosz, 2013). She is a two times winner of “Literatura na Świecie” (“World Literature”) journal award for prose translations. Translator of English literature, including Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Derek Walcott, Seamus Heaney, and Roald Dahl.

Urszula Kropiwiec  (Co author of the programme)

Culture Manager and Spanish translator. Vice President of Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdów Castle in Warsaw and Vice President of Pro Helvetia Swiss Foundation for Culture, East Central Europe division (1999 2014). Her published translations include: the autobiography of Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls, and two books of another Cuban dissident, Guillermo Cabrera Infante — She Sang Boleros and Guilty of Dancing the ChaChaCha. She conducted literary translation workshops at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow, where she also co organised translation conferences “Między oryginałem a przekładem” (“Between Originals and Translations”), as well as co edited a series of publications under the same title.

Justyna Czechowska (co author of the programme)

Literary scholar, cultural events coordinator, translator from Swedish and Norwegian, author of articles, anthologies, and interviews. Co founder of the Literary Research Foundation and the Association of Literary Translators. She worked as a creative writing teacher and literary agent. Her translations have been published both in Poland and Scandinavia. One of them, Kristin Berget’s Der ganze Weg, was nominated in the second edition of the European Poet of Freedom competition. She translates works by Tove Jansson and Ida Linde. Together with Piotr Kieżun, she moderates a series of debates “Piątek: literatura!” (“It’s Friday! Time for Literature”) within Poddasze Kultury Liberalnej (the Liberal Culture Attic association).

Aleksandra Szymańska (the Meetings’ initiator, co creator of the festival’s idea)

Cultural Manager, cultural events coordinator, cultural policy specialist. Co author of Gdańsk’s European Capital of Culture contest entry, “Freedom of Culture. Culture of Freedom.” Director of the City Culture Institute, which focuses on socio cultural, artistic, editorial and research projects, as part of the Cultural Observatory initiative. Member of the City Cultural Policy team of the National Centre for Culture.

Photo: Renata Dąbrowska