Justyna Czechowska 

Translator from Swedish and Norwegian, cultural animator and promotor od literature, Justyna Czechowska is also the author of articles, anthologies and interviews. She co-founded the Polish Association of Literary Translators. She translates what she likes, including the prose of Tove Jansson, Ida Linde and Agneta Pleijel, as well as contemporary Swedish women poets. In 2018, she was awarded the Wisława Szymborska Prize for her translation of Linn Hansén’s poetry collection Gå till historien/Turn to History. In 2023, she received the prestigious Swedish Academy Prize for translators. Czechowska is Vice President of the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations (CEATL) and a board member of the Polish PEN Club.

Magda Heydel 

Magda Heydel translates English-language literature, most notably the works of Angela Carter, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney, Alice Oswald, Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf. Twice awarded the Literatura na Świecie prize, she also received the European Poet of Freedom Award (2020) and the Gdynia Literary Prize (2021). She is the Secretary General of the Polish PEN Club, an honorary member of the Association of Literary Translators and a professor at the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University, where she heads the Centre for Translation Studies. Heydel is a fellow of the Foundation for Polish Science and the Fulbright Foundation, and editor-in-chief of the academic journal Przekładaniec. A Journal of Translation Studies.

Urszula Kropiwiec

Urszula Kropiwiec translates from Spanish and French and works as a cultural manager. She conducted literary translation workshops at the Jagiellonian University, where she also co-organised the conference Between the Original and the Translation. From 1999 to 2014, she headed the Central and Eastern European office of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, and from 2015 to 2019, she was Deputy Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. She is currently associated with the Nowy Teatr in Warsaw. Kropiwiec has published translations of works by authors such as Reinaldo Arenas, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Achille Mbembe, Frantz Fanon and Françoise Vergès.

Aleksandra Szymańska 

Aleksandra Szymańska is a cultural animator, cultural manager and expert in the field of cultural policy. Previously associated with the Polish phonographic market and media, she is involved in independent cultural projects. Szymańska is the co-author of the main concept behind Gdańsk’s bid for the title of European Capital of Culture: ‘Freedom of Culture. Culture of Freedom’. Between 2011 and 2024, she was at the helm of the City Culture Institute in Gdańsk, where she also authored its concept and development strategy. Since 1 July 2024, she has served as the director of the Centre for the Development of Creative Industries.